I am pleased to be able to share the following testimony from a follower and friend. For all who will humbly embrace God’s truths therein, it has the promise to be a life-changing blessing. To God be all the glory!
A Testimony
I was thinking this morning about what it means to be who I am in Christ Jesus; and it occurred to me that first and foremost I am a woman. I cannot get around this very first point, that I am a woman which must mean it was His plan for me to be a woman… and so, now what?
Clearly, we are born into a sinful world, and by the time one begins to evaluate who they are, it becomes apparent to most that they are a lost soul. So naturally, our concept of ourselves is skewed and all haywire; we are a mess and have no “right” direction or plan for our lives. I know mine didn’t and that was painfully obvious. My life was a total mess, because I was both living it and viewing life itself through worldly eyes. My life as a woman, was just not working according to my “own plan.” In fact, at best it was total chaos and comparable to a headache which nothing ever seemed to offer hope it ever getting better.
But once the Lord Jesus Christ got a hold on me, He began correcting my misconception of who I was, and He began by fashioning me into a godly wife. It was a true blessing that both my husband and I began seeking the Lord and following His Words of Life at the same time, and miraculously everything began to change in our lives; especially the relationship we were sharing in our marriage and the plans we had for our future. The result was that I was no longer a trapped woman being controlled by worldly notions about how I should live and think. Rather, my eyes were now opened and I began seeing the glorious truth about who I was, and what I was supposed to be, in God’s eyes. Finally, I was recognizing God’s plan for us all through the light of His Word.
The first lesson I was struck by with that of my being a woman was the kind of wife I needed to be in regards to my relationship to my husband:
Ephesians 5:33 – Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
That verse became a new layer of foundation for our marriage, and it changed EVERYTHING in both of us. He truly “loves” me, and I always now endeavor to love him with the “respect” God’s word says a wife needs to both have and show. We have been married now for 33 years, and I can say with all assurance that my husband, my marriage, and my home, together have all become a sanctuary. Because of Jesus Christ, and the wisdom of His principles for a godly marriage, our relationship and home have been transformed into the only place in this world where I consistently find safety, comfort, love, trust, truth, and a holy satisfaction; because it is a place in which the Spirit of the Lord always resides.
My testimony is simple, for it is that my husband and I have both been transformed and are now growing together by acknowledging holy principles that began with the Lord’s desire and love for His Church; for the very concept of marriage was HIS creation. Therefore, if women would simply return to those foundational truths that work to change them into godly women and wives, and would faithfully submit to those godly principles, then their lives would have less stress and their marriages would make more sense than those relationships and marriages out in the world. I say this because God has truly honored our faithfulness so that the idea of me having to work outside the home has changed, instead God has allowed me to truly focus on raising my children, loving husband, and making this house a true home for our family.
Titus 2:3 – The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; 4 – That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
By trusting the Lord and obeying His instruction, my husband and I have truly become content. We now have something that would be hard to fully explain; as our home, marriage, and family have now become something truly sacred. For me, to be a mom who is able to care for my own children means I don’t have to let the world have them now. Because I want the Lord to have them, and for them to trust, know, love, and serve the Lord, I rejoice that we were able to train them up in the ways of the Lord. What a blessing we did not accept the world’s lies and devil’s trap and leave our children exposed and subject to the deceptive ways of the world.
When we decided I would be a stay-at-home mom, our income went down to only my husband’s normally unpredictable self-employed income; which seemed a risk in itself. But God blessed us beyond measure, and that because together we made this choice in faith. Faith is the only way to come to God and to please Him, and because we exercised our faith, He has blessed us greatly.
In the beginning my husband was persuaded that we needed to have our marriage structured according to God’s word, and now he too feels great about everything God has done. His life has been changed and by God’s Spirit and grace he is becoming the man he is supposed to be in the Lord. For now, by exercising His faith in God’s word, he is now leading and providing for his family in the ways of God; and that now gives him the integrity and self-respect that is necessary for him as a man of God. He truly loves me now and cares for me in a godly way, and I in return so love him.
With our children gone and married themselves, it is just my husband and I now; and so, we embark on a new phase of our lives together with the Lord. However, we both experientially know that faith works; for it is an amazing gift and godly concept that God has given us! It made both of us complete in our marriage, as God so intended. God knew the design would work for us, because it is the same design He made for His Church and Himself.
It often seems I don’t have adequate words to fully express how I feel today after walking this way, following those godly concepts for so many years in our marriage: it is as the Bible says, it is truly a mystery which is so deep that it is nearly incomprehensible. God’s marriage plan, and the instructions for being a godly woman and wife is truly the only way to for a woman to be perfecting holiness… if only they will believe it and live it.
2 Ephesians 5:28 – So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
Gates of the City 