Couples sometimes irritate each other, but that’s where God’s grace can make a big difference! In fact, God’s grace can transform any marriage. God’s grace can transform any relationship even if people sometimes irritate each other in those relationships.
The secret is a humble, submissive spirit. When you demand your own way, when you insist on your own rights in the relationship, then there is friction. But when you submit to each other, in the fear of the Lord, then God’s grace intervenes in a powerful way.
Grace works when a wife submits to her husband. Also, God’s grace works when a husband submits to his wife. If you have your Bibles, turn with me to 1 Peter 3, where God speaks specifically to husbands.
1 Peter 3:7 “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered” (ESV).
Literally, the original text says, “Husbands, IN THE SAME WAY live with your wives according to knowledge…” In other words, God commands men to live with their wives in the same way He asks their wives to live with them in the previous six verses. There, He told the wives to “be submissive” to their husbands and so win him and woo him with an irresistible inner beauty. Well, men, if you are to “live with [your wife] in the same way,” then that means you too must SUBMIT.
Rank yourself under your wife. Put yourself under her authority.
Like I often said, when the Bible talks about the husband/wife relationship, it is always in the context of mutual submission. You see, when each puts the other first in the relationship, then you have harmony in the home. But when either one or both demand their own way, pursuing their own selfish ambition, then all you have is “disorder and every vile practice” (James 3:16).
Dear Couples, if you want God’s grace to permeate your home and transform your relationship with your wife/husband, then learn to put her/him before yourself in the relationship. Make her/his agenda, not yours, the top priority in your day. Put her/his interests above your own in your daily pursuits.