Prayer alone is not enough (Part 4)
Verse of the day: Ephesians 5:24 “Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything”
This morning we will mainly talk about unanswered prayers because of the lack of submission in married couples. A wife can pray for a long time in vain for the conversion of her husband without realizing that she is the source of the problem.
The verse of the day tells us that a wife should submit to her husband just as the church submits to Christ. Submission of the Church of Christ allows it to receive blessings from God the Father. The Church cannot ask God the Father to bless it if it’s not submitted to the established authority i.e Christ. Likewise, if a wife does not obey her husband, she should expect an obstacle for certain blessings (from God) that were supposed to reach her through her husband. If you are a wife and you spend forty days in fasting for the conversion of your husband but yet you don’t respect him, I’m afraid that you may wait for a long time because your prayers lack salt (submission).
The letter is not only addressed to wives because in the same chapter husbands are also mentioned (Ephesians 5:25): The verse says that the husband must love his wife just as Christ loved the Church. The same verse insists that the husband shouldn’t just love his wife but he should be ready to give himself up for her.
If you are a man and you don’t do any sacrifice for your wife, you spend days in fasting and in prayer in order to ask God to bow her so that she could be submissive, you may wait for a long time simply because you miss salt (love in action).
The bible says that your behavior toward your wife can block some prayers. In 1 Peter 3:7 it is written: “Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered”
Writing to the wives who have unbelievers husbands, Peter advises them to be submissive because some can win their husbands just because of their behavior without preaching them (1 Peter 3:1). Here the point is not about knowing who is bigger than the other but it’s all about respecting the order established by God Himself. If God asks to the wives to be submissive, it’s also for their good because their submission is supposed to produce their husband’s love.
In the fifth part, we will talk about work as a kind of salt.
Chris Ndikumana
