Sustenance #7 — Honor First

Husbands honor your wives as fellow heirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered. 1 Peter 3:7

This one is mainly for men, but mutatis mutandis … Honoring our mates prevents the rise of an obstacle to answered prayer. If they are members of the Body of Christ, they have received the same gift as every other member: eternal life! It is our Father’s desire that we enjoy this gift together. Not to honor our spouses is to insult the Lord who gives value to the gifts he bestows. How could we expect him to answer our prayers for more gifts, if we do not honor the gifts he has already given and the recipients he has honored with his gifts? What are some ways we can honor our wives? Wherever we are, we can honor them by speaking well of them to those around us; sharing our delight with others reinforces it in us. We can hold their memory sacred by not looking at images that would turn our desires away from them. We can communicate with them whenever possible, sharing especially our love for them and our desire to be with them. We can remain faithful in attitude as well as in action, knowing that everything we do while we’re not with them changes the person we’ll be when we reunite.

Living Lord, increase my delight in the life you’ve given me, so when I see it in my mate I cherish and honor what binds us closer than we could otherwise be. Amen.