Devotion to God in Everything
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...
Passage
Ephesians 5:15-6:9 - ‘Devotion to God in everything’
Conditions
I had a rehearsal at an unusual time tonight and so came home half way through dinner. Everyone was in good spirits, and warm and toasty inside. A very different environment to the one I was in outside. I jokingly walked straight from the front door to the kitchen table and opened my Bible: “Ephesians 5:15…”
Time
Tuesday is a swimming evening, but we eat dinner early enough that there’s sufficient time for family worship even with an evening commitment.
Teaching
We spent a week recently in the family passages, so Ephesians 5 was familiar to us. After reading I asked: “What do you notice about all these relationships?” One of the children was tracking me very well: “They all have God in them!” This phrasing is even better than something more eloquent. “God gets into everything, doesn’t He?”
A few nights ago we wondered together where the Christian life was to be lived? Some say it’s to be lived in our hearts only. Some say in our heads only. Some say only on Sundays. This gave us an opportunity to introduce Pietism as an idea to engage with. But all these are to be rejected, because the Christian life is to be lived everywhere. We made the connection between these two evenings.
‘If Dada isn’t thinking about God when relating to Mama, I’m not relating to Mama properly. If Mama and Dada don’t think about God when relating to the children, we’re not relating to you properly. If you don’t think about God when relating to Mama and Dada, you’re not doing it properly. Our devotion to God is in everything!’
Reflection
Recently my wife and I were talking about how often the times we anticipate will be the best or easiest turn up the most formidable temptations. It’s also true that sometimes when we think a Bible reading and prayer won’t get off the ground it surprisingly does and without much trouble. I tend to be too ambitious about the easy times and not ambitious at all about the difficult times. Better just to be faithful in whatever the Lord sends.