Hallelujah!!! God's promises are yay and amen!! He is so faithful!!! The overwhelming responses given by the effectiveness of the quiet time blessed me. I pray that we all will continue to make time for God!!! He longs to commune with us. Communing with God is an honor in itself.
That was a powerful lesson last week! I was so severely challenged and blessed by it at the same time. This passed weekend we moved into a new home. Moving puts stress on any relationship; friendships, family, associates, co-workers, and especially marriage. It is an event that heightens anxiety and certain pressures within anyone. I was most challenged in my submissiveness during this process. It is very easy for me to practice submission in the obvious areas; cooking, cleaning, maintaining our home, allowing my husband to lead. I am still learning and growing in those quiet areas; silence, meekness, attitude, willingness, accepting my role as a God designed woman, etc. Realizing how submissive Noah's wife had to be in order to be as supportive as God designed her to be to Noah has impacted my approach towards my own battle with submission. I am my husband's God designed perfect match and God is in control; not my husband and especially not me. I cannot profess that God is in control of everything, confess that I trust God and then try to practice disobedience in the mist of any trial or small discomfort. Studying and preparing for this lesson is definitely evidence of God's perfect timing. I am challenged and stretched to grow even more, in the area of trusting God's divine order (God, man, woman) and practicing biblical submissiveness over my own perspective of submissiveness. Submissiveness is not contingent on the other person's behavior. It is based on your obedience to God. You are indirectly submitting to the person who has authority over you in that moment. You are directly submitting to God. You are binding your flesh and surrendering to your spirit man. Your true submission is to God. I thank God for these lessons for they truly bless my life. Most people would say that the blessing is the new home, which yes, I am very grateful. However, the true blessing was the opportunity to see myself and have my sin exposed so God could convict me and I could grow in Him. The more I grow in Christ Jesus, the closer I am to God. I am a humble servant and grateful that I get to experience these lessons with all of you.
This week we are going to discuss obedience. When God gave me this lesson, I thought to myself, "Again Lord?!?!?" We have talked about obedience with almost every woman of the bible that we have discussed so far. However, it is a definite point of contention when walking with Christ. As we war with our flesh daily, we are succumbing to disobedience more times than we should (Romans 7:14-17).
We will discuss the wife of Noah and her practice of obedience.
Resource
Genesis 7:13, 16
13 On the very same day Noah and Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark.
16 So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded; and the Lord shut them in
Submit - Yielding to another; refer to another person for decision and/or judgement
Surrender - Agree to forgo the power or possession; relinquish control
obedience - dutifully submissive behavior with respect to another person; being willing
disobedience - a trait of being unwilling; failure to practice obedience
Lesson
I would like us to focus on the definitions listed above. When an interaction is occurring that requires obedience, better yet, submission, are we conscious of what this really means?
I facilitated a weekly bible study this last week at my church and we discussed the importance of awareness and choice. In order to really conquer sin daily, we must have an awareness of sin, our sinful nature, and what triggers us to sin. Additionally, we must be aware of the choice we are making to engage or indulge that sin. This same awareness is necessary when operating in submission and obedience. We have to make a conscious choice to submit and obey. You cannot practice obedience without submission which takes awareness and choice.
Noah's wife needed to exhibit all of these qualities in order to support her husband Noah in the biggest decision of his life. We can only imagine the intense emotion that this situation may have invoked based on the severity of its nature. What would the reaction be today if a person that has authority over us told us that the world was going to end at God's hand, very shortly and that we need to prepare a place of refuge during this time. I am curious to know how many of us would submit to that authority and obey. How many of us would have a willing attitude to build the refuge?
Noah's wife behavior of submission and obedience spanned beyond herself. It also affected her children and each generation to follow. Shem, the eldest son of Noah and his wife, went on to lead many blessed nations. We can conclude that this is because he witnessed the leadership of his father, serving God, and the obedience of his mother, submitting to her husband. A lineage of obedience.
Think of all the times in your life when you chose to be obedient. When I think of the times that I have chosen to be obedient, God's radiant love shines upon me. Sometimes it is not immediate, but the rewards are always there. It seems that we sometimes confuse our expected outcome with God's intended outcome. We are disappointed because things did not follow our plan. However, things always operate according to His plan. His plan gives Him glory, not us. We are here to glorify Him.
As I discussed above, we have a habit of disobedience when we have to submit. God has called us to submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21). This requires obedience.
APPLICATION
As we progress throughout the week, let's take time to practice:
• conscious awareness
• biblical choices
• biblical submission
• obedience
Take some time to journal about your experiences this week and assess yourself. Ask God to help you through each task.
Have a blessed week!
Be blessed,
T. Carter
All bible verses are extracted from the Holy Bible King New King James Version.
M-W.com (2013). Merriam-Webster Dictionary Web Version. Retrieved from App Store
Mears, Henrietta (1999). What the Bibles is All About. Regal Publishing House. Ventura, California
Nelson, Thomas (1997). Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible. Thomas Nelson Publishing. Nashville, Tenessee
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