Tag: #Christian

A Life that is Successful

Three times in the Bible the Lord says that if you will do a certain thing then your life will be successful or prosperous. This is a promise with a condition but it is well worth the work. However, unless your heart wants to do it then you will not be able to persevere. You must want to please the Lord in all that you do. This activity helps you learn to do what pleases Him.

Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

You must humble yourself before the Lord and ask Him how you can learn His ways. He says that He teaches the humble His way. God’s Word teaches us His way but His Spirit is what gives us the understanding.

Psalm 25:9 He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way.

Again, the Lord says in Scripture, if you will meditate on God’s Word and delight in His Word then the Lord says that in whatever you do you will be prosperous.

Psalm 1:2,3 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.

Again, in the New Testament, the Lord mentions again this activity of looking intently at the Word of God and doing what it says.

James 1:25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

Do you feel God’s blessing in your life? Do you need His blessing? If you have never done this then why don’t you ask the Lord to help you? What is it that the Lord wants you to do? He wants you to learn to meditate on His Word and live by what He says in His Word. Meditation is putting God’s Word in your heart and thinking about what it means and how it applies to your life.

Psalm 119:48 And I shall lift up my hands to Your commandments, Which I love; And I will meditate on Your statutes.

Go to a Christian who puts God’s Word in their heart and seeks to live by it and ask them to help you. It is a great reward and a great promise because the Lord wants you to spend time with Him and delight in Him. It is through His Word that He speaks to His children. He wants to communicate with you and wants you to fellowship with Him.

 

 

 

A Life of Belonging

One of the most precious truths that become ours when we become a Christian is that we belong to Him. We become one of His sheep and He becomes our Shepherd. Of course, we become His child in reality but the Lord uses the picture of the Shepherd and the sheep to show how much He cares for us. We all long to belong to someone and when we come to Him then we belong to the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for us.

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

Before we become a sheep we first become a lamb for a lamb is a baby sheep. Being the Good Shepherd, He cares tenderly for the lambs and before they learn to walk He carries them just as a mother tenderly carries her newborn babies close to her.

Isaiah 40:11 Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.

The Shepherd carries the newborn Christian close to Him until they become strong enough to learn to walk and then as a good parent, He teaches them how to walk. Just as a toddler must first learn to step out in faith, so too, the Christian learns to step out in faith. When a toddler falls, the parent comforts and encourages the young child to continue until they can walk on their own. So too, the Shepherd tends for the lambs until they grow and become sheep. As sheep they are still dependent on the Shepherd but it is in a healthy developmental way.

Psalm 23:1-3 The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

Once the lamb has grown and is a sheep then the Lord guides them. They are not needy for He supplies what they need. That is the meaning of the sheep not being in want. He will make them, at times when it is needful, to lie down in green pastures so that they can be fed with green, nourishing grass. Notice, He does not make them lie down in the desert or on the weeds. No, He is a Good Shepherd and cares for the sheep. Also, the sheep need the still waters to be refreshed and so He leads them beside quiet waters so that their souls may be restored. Sometimes we don’t like the slower times in our lives but it is for our good. We need the down times so that we can be strong and refreshed for the busy times.

Psalm 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

He will be with you always. He says that He will never leave you or forsake you. The Shepherd is always with you. Do not be afraid even when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

Hebrews 13:5 …for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”

In His prayer for His disciples before He went to the cross Jesus prayed that they would be protected from evil. You do not need to fear evil.

John 17:15 I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.

No one can take you from Him or pluck you out of His hand. You belong to Him. You are secure in Him forever.

John 10:27-30 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

When you belong to the Lord then He wants you to “be longing” for Him. He is good and He longs to show His love to you.

Isaiah 30:18 Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.

 

A Life that is Loved

Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so is the greatest truth in all the world. Is His love real to you? God loves you so much that He gave His only begotten Son for you so that you might live in His love for all eternity. His wrath is poured out on sin and so to take care of your sin He took the wrath that you deserved. We are all like that…we get mad at the sins of others, and yet, when we sin we need to know that He took the wrath that was intended for us. We deserve wrath but we have been given mercy and love.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

When Jesus was here on earth He loved His disciples. He loved them to the end even though they failed Him He never failed them. In the same way, you will fail the Lord many times but He will never fail you. His love never changes.

John 13:1 …having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

Propitiation means that God was satisfied with what Jesus did for us on the cross. There is nothing we can do to cause Him to love us any more. He is satisfied. We can not add to His love for us neither can we take away from His love for us. He loved us and died for us, once for all.

I John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

He wants you to live in that love that He has for you. He calls you His “Beloved”, which means that He wants you to “be loved” by Him.

I John 4:9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

In Him alone is life. When you come into a relationship with Him then you begin to experience life. Eternal life begins the moment you believe in Him. The word “know” means “an intimate knowledge of” just as in the Old Testament when it would refer to a marriage relationship it would say they knew each other. They became one. In the same way, when you come to know the Lord then you become one with Him.

John 17:3 This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

It is only in Jesus Christ that we can understand even a little of the greatness of love. His love is beyond our human comprehension and His ways are unfathomable. The more you know Him and His love for you then the more you will experience the riches of His grace and kindness in Christ.

Romans 11:3 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!

There is nothing that can separate you from His love and there is no one who can come between you and His love for you.

Romans 8:35-39 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When you come to Him then goodness and lovingkindness will follow you all the days of your life.

Psalm 23:6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

 

A Life that Reaps What is Good

The Bible says that God is not mocked. We all reap what we sow in life. We can reap good or we can reap bad, either way, we reap what we sow. Many of our blessings or struggles are the result of what we sowed earlier in life and it could have been many years earlier.

Galatians 6:7,8 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

You can be a Christian and still experience death to your soul, which is your mind, will and emotions. For this reason, the Lord says to receive the Word implanted into your life which is able to save your soul. When you sow to the flesh then the corruption you reap is death to your soul. It brings you guilt, grief, destruction and corruption.

James 1:21 Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.

When you are a Christian and you sow to the Spirit then you will reap eternal life.

Romans 8:5,6 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

Eternal life is knowing the Lord.

John 17:3 This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

When you sow righteousness, which is a right relationship with the Lord and the outcome is obedience to His Word through His Spirit,  then you will reap steadfast love.

Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

When you sow righteousness in others, which is leading them to a right relationship with the Lord through His Word, then you will be called a peacemaker.

Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

When you are a peacemaker then you will be called a Christian and will be known as His child.

James 3:18 And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

His Word is sown in peace which produces His righteousness.

Romans 1:16,17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

Are you sowing the good Word in the lives of others?

John 4:36 Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.

The more you sow the more you reap. Sow a little then reap a little but sow abundantly and you will reap abundantly.

II Corinthians 9:6 Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

The more you sow then the more He supplies what you need and He will increase the harvest of righteousness.

II Corinthians 9:10 Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness;

 

A Life that Listens to the Truth

Over and over again Jesus said to His followers, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”. If you could be told anything as a young person it would be to listen to the truth. He or she who has ears to hear, let them hear the truth. You will do what you listen to. If you do what is right then blessing and good will be poured out on your life. If you listen to the lies of the world then you will experience much pain, sorrow, loneliness, heartache, regret, guilt, remorse, and it will only be multiplied to you.

Psalm 1:1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

Do not listen to or heed the advice that is found in the newspapers, online chat rooms, many blogs, magazines, etc. which are not founded in the Word of God. It could possibly create confusion in you if you are not sure what to do. The Bible says that God is not a God of confusion. IF you find yourself saying to yourself, “I am so confused” then back away and go to Him and ask Him for clarity and get in His Word.

I Corinthians 14:33 for God is not a God of confusion but of peace,

The Lord wants to and promises to give you peace if you will come to Him with what is on your heart. He wants to show you His way. Please listen to Him.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

Wait on the Lord until He shows you what to do. He is there to help you.

Psalm 33:18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,
On those who wait for His lovingkindness,

Do not light your own fire, in other words, don’t make your own light. If you do not know what to do then wait. The Good Shepherd leads. He does not drive, pressure or push.

Isaiah 50:11 Behold, all you who kindle a fire, Who encircle yourselves with firebrands, Walk in the light of your fire And among the brands you have set ablaze. This you will have from My hand: You will lie down in torment.

You will lie down in torment. Is that how you want to go to sleep at night? It is not what the Lord wants for His children.

Psalm 4:8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For You alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety.

He gives to His beloved even in his sleep. You are his beloved. He wants you to be loved by Him.

Psalm 127:2 It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.

A Life that Avoids a Life of Sorrow

It is our choice in life if we want to experience unnecessary sorrow or experience and live in the love of God. Sorrow is a part of life but much of the sorrow that we experience is because we either don’t want to or don’t know how to experience the love of God. How can this be?

Psalm 32:10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked, But he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shall surround him.

The wicked person trusts in himself and wants to “be the master of his own destiny”. The godly person trusts in the Lord and wants the Lord to guide their life and be their Lord and Savior. Many are the sorrows of the wicked. You may get your “own way” but the price that you pay will be great sorrow. The person who trusts in the Lord will have great joy and experience much lovingkindness.

Psalm 16:4a The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied;

One of the amazing aspects of the Lord is that He gives us a free choice. We don’t have to worship Him. We can worship whoever or whatever we want, whether it is an idol fashioned by hands or if it something else such as money, material things, houses, cars, sports, people, beauty or anything else that we allow to control our lives and determine our direction in life. If it controls our happiness then it has the capacity to bring us sorrow and it will in just a matter of time. If God controls us then He will give us joy.

Isaiah 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.

Jesus took our sin and our sorrows that we might have His righteousness and joy, which are everlasting. He is eternal and what He gives to us is eternal. When we give our sorrows to Him then He takes them and gives us eternal life. We realize that we have placed our hopes and joy in what can never satisfy and we come to Him and give Him all that we had earlier put our trust in.

II Corinthians 7:10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

Are you sorrowful? Have you thought that someone or something could satisfy you and then have realized that person or thing can never fill your heart? Come to the Lord. He will take your sorrows and give you joy. He wants you to live in His love. Abide in His love and your cup will overflow with joy.

John 15:9-11 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

The secret to avoiding a life of sorrow is to abide in God’s love. The way we abide in God’s love is to first give our hearts to Him and then once we have surrendered to Him and been born again, we are to keep His commandments. Jesus kept the Father’s commandments and did exactly as the Father commanded Him. He did not tweak it by saying, “God really did not say this or mean this…” Yes, if He said it in His Word then He means it. Keep His commandments and your joy will be made full.

 

A Life that Is Changed for Good

We all need to change or rather to be changed for good into a better person. However, we can not change ourselves. We may be able to make outward changes but we can not change our hearts and that is where true change needs to happen. The only problem is that our heart is sick and is deceived.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?

Before there can be lasting change in our life we need a new heart. Since the Lord is the One who made our hearts then He is the only One who can give us a new heart.

Ezekiel 36:26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

We will know when we have received a new heart because we will want to obey Him and walk in His ways.

Ezekiel 36:27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

We will no longer want to do the things we did before. We will be ashamed of the things we did before and they will no longer appeal to us in the same way.

Ezekiel 36:31 Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations.

We know that we have been changed because we will want to do what is right within our heart. Rather than want to sin we will want to obey the Lord because we will see that He is good and kind.

Romans 6:17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,

Even more than just wanting to obey Him, we will want to spend time with Him because now we are in a love relationship with Him. The God of the universe wants to spend time with us and we realize the incredible privilege that He has given to us to be with Him. When He gives us a new heart then He comes to live within our hearts through the Holy Spirit. He is the One who changes us and transforms us as we grow in our relationship with Him.

II Corinthians 3:17,18 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

We grow in our relationship with Him as we spend time with Him in His Word and in His presence through prayer. Our life is changed and transformed through His Word as He replaces the lies that we believed before our new heart with his truths that set us free and give us life.

Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

As our lives are transformed into the image of God then we experience His will, which is good and acceptable and perfect. There is nothing to add to His will or take from His will, for God has so worked that we should love and fear Him all the days of our lives.

Ecclesiastes 3:14 I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him.

 

 

 

A Life that Sees Clearly

We all want to see clearly in life. We don’t want to hope that we are doing life right and making the best decisions. We want to see clearly. Just as when we walk in this world, we need light to see clearly so we will not stumble and hurt ourselves, in the same way, as we walk through life we need to see clearly so we will not experience unnecessary pain.

Psalm 36:9 For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light we see light.

In God’s light we see light and understand. Jesus is the Light of the world and it is in His light that we see clearly.

John 1:9 There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.

Everyone lives in a certain amount of spiritual darkness before a person turns to the Lord. There is a veil, or a covering, over our hearts that does not allow us to see clearly, to hear clearly and to understand. We stumble through life only guessing and hoping that we are making the right decisions or we allow life to carry us wherever it happens to take us and the end is never good.

II Corinthians 3:16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

When the veil over our hearts is taken away then we can see clearly and understand. Those who have not turned to the Lord, the Gospel is still veiled to them and they can not see clearly or hear the Lord calling to them so that they might turn to Him. They are blinded, living in darkness, unbelieving and perishing.

II Corinthians 4:3,4 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

The Lord is the One who shines in our hearts so that we might see Him and know Him. The Lord says that “knowledge of the Holy One is understanding”. When we come to know Him then we understand life and we no longer walk in the darkness but walk in the light.

II Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

What an incredible promise that He has given to those who receive Him and follow Him as His disciples.

John 8:12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

A Life that Is Forgiven and Free

There is one thing that man can not live with and that is guilt. The Lord never intended man to live with guilt and when sin came into the world then guilt came also. The Lord made a provision for man’s guilt through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He died for the world that all who believe in Him may receive forgiveness of all of their sin. This word sin is all encompassing of everything that each person has done wrong that has brought guilt upon him. Jesus took our guilt as well as our sin. We are forgiven if we have received the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

All of us have believed the lies of the devil and have taken refuge in those lies. Those lies have led to our destruction and our sorrow.

Isaiah 28:16,17 Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone,
A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed.
He who believes in it will not be disturbed.
“I will make justice the measuring line
And righteousness the level;
Then hail will sweep away the refuge of lies
And the waters will overflow the secret place.

The devil is a destroyer and his goal is to destroy your life and to have you experience sin, guilt and ultimately death. Jesus came to give us life.

John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

The devil destroys us through lies and when we are deceived we believe the lies. They may seem appealing at first but the end is death.

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.

Death to the soul is the guilt, sorrow, grief, regret, sadness, depression and despair that we experience through believing and acting on the lies of the devil, thinking that it is the right thing to do. We have taken the bait of the devil and been deceived through our own desires and brought about our own death. Death to the body is not the end but only the door into eternity. Those who have believed and received Jesus, the Lamb of God, will go into heaven and those who continued to go their own way and never turned from their sin to the Lord, these will go into hell.

Hebrews 9:27,28 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.

God will judge everyone first and foremost on what they did with Jesus Christ…either receiving Him or rejecting Him. This judgment will be just because God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for the world.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

We must be ready for the moment we see the Lord for we do not know what hour or day that will come. The only way that we can be prepared is to be right with God and this only comes through Jesus Christ. He is the only way to God.

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

The Lord says that today is the day of salvation. Once you receive Him then He gives you a new life in Him and sets you free from the lies of the devil and the sins that once controlled you. He sets you free to live the life that He designed for you. His plans for you are to live a good life and a blessed life, free of guilt as you allow Him to be your Lord and Savior.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

 

 

 

A Life that is Submissive

Submission is what described the life of our Lord. He was entirely submissive to the Father. A life of submission is a sweet life if understood correctly. It is when truths are distorted that we struggle. Submission is the correct response to authority. Jesus is our Lord and our Savior. Lordship means that we are in submission to His rule and authority. He has appointed others to be in authority over us and we are to submit to them. Submission is expressed through obedience.

Philippians 2:8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

We are to first submit ourselves to God.

James 4:7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

We are to submit ourselves to the governing authorities in whatever human institution the Lord has us serving, whether it is in school or on a job or the local civil authority.

I Peter 2:13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority,

We are to submit ourselves to our spiritual leaders who have been entrusted with responsibility to oversee our spiritual well being, for they will give an account.

Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.

When you get married or if you are married now then you are to submit to your husband. Of course it may seem easier to submit to a loving, Christian husband but if you are not married to a Christian then the commandment does not change, you are still to submit to him. God’s grace is sufficient for keeping His commandments.

I Peter 3:1 In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives,

You are not obligated to submit to the husbands of other women but only to your own husband.

I Peter 3:5,6 For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands; just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear.

The word “lord” in this verse is the same word as “Lord” in reference to Jesus Christ. The word is kureos. Your husband is your kureos and Jesus Christ is your Kureos. They both exercise lordship over you and are to be respected for their position. One is God and the other is man. One you see and obey him and the other you can not see but obey Him.

Genesis 12:11-13 It came about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman; and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.”

Abram asked Sarai to say that she was his sister so that his life would not be in danger. Sarai obeyed her husband without being frightened by fear. It is when fear controls us that we take matters into our own hands and disobey God. The Lord protected Sarai because she was submissive to her husband. He did not allow any harm to come to her.

Genesis 12:17 But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

Only a person who knows her God and is secure in Him can live this kind of life. He will protect the one who takes refuge in Him and obeys Him.

Psalm 125:3 For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the land of the righteous, So that the righteous will not put forth their hands to do wrong.

This verse means that God will not allow His people to do wrong because they represent Him and He rules with uprightness.

Psalm 45:6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom.

The Lord also rules over all who are in authority. No one has any authority unless it has been given it ti him from God.

Psalm 103:19 The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all.