“Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband” (Ephesians 5:33).

If you want to know the secret of a good marriage, here it is.  These words exactly describe all that is needed.  Men, love your wife (and only your wife) and wives, respect your husbands.  All of the self-help books dance around this simple passage.  The Lord gives us wisdom amidst the mystery of life and if we are willing to apply that wisdom, we will live lives filles with joy.

Lord, where Your word crashes into the thoughts of the world, I too often side with the world.  Where this is true, change it in me Lord.  Your Word is forever and this world will pass away.  Help me to learn to live this mystery by applying what is right and good in my own life.  Lead me in the way You know I need to live and help me to follow through with those things I need.

Thank You Lord Jesus that You have given us grace to restore us after our failures.  It is good that getting it right is not a requirement for being saved, for then we all should be damned.  Yet, Lord, there is the right way of doing things and Your grace enables us at the time and place to do things the right way.  Help me, O Lord, to do what is right and live according to the will of the Father.  Amen.

“This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:32).

Mystery is that which you see but cannot quite grasp how it is so.  We all have mysteries in our lives.  Now, consider the God beyond time, who shows up in our realm of reality.  Of course there is great mystery.  He shares a part of the mystery in His Triune self when He makes us in His image and then makes us male and female.  Great mystery is infused into the fabric of our being.

Lord, in our so-called scientific age where people believe that all questions can be answered (which is a lie of the devil, for if science could answer all its questions, why we are here will still be unanswered), help me to see that You are so deep and wide and that all of eternity is not enough to know You as You know each of us.  Help me to cherish the mysteries that abound in our world.

Lord Jesus, You are a mystery and yet You have come so that Your bride, the church, might be sanctified.  Lead me in the sanctified life You give in order that I may now and always be guided by You and the grace and mercy You give.  Help me not fall back from this faith, but practice it beginning with the challenge that you place before me with these verses.  Lead me to be faithful, Lord.  Amen.

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Ephesians 5:31).

Three times this is said in Scripture.  This is how the Lord intends us to live our lives.  Contrast this with how the world resists this simple instruction.  Husbands and wives are to an unbreakable bond that lasts a lifetime.  This is what the Lord has always intended.

Lord, teach me to be a person of my word.  Teach me to learn that love is not how I feel, but the reality of the promises I keep and the concern and care I give to another.  Lead me Lord to know what these things mean and then to do them.  Guide me Lord in the way You would have me go and lead me to love, learning to love as You love.  In all things, may Your light shine through me.

Lord Jesus, You also spoke these words to Your disciples.  You have also taught us that we are not to go halfway in our commitments, but to live committed to doing things the Father’s way, in season and out of season.  Lead me Lord to learn what faithfulness is and to learn the deeper level of love.  Guide me to leave and cleave.  Guide me to grow deep in this faith You have given me.  Amen.

“For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,  because we are members of His body” (Ephesians 5:29-30).

We know how to take care of ourselves.  We each may do it in our own way, but we do it none-the-less.  As we nourish and cherish ourselves, so we ought to see our spouse as a part of us.  Many see the other as chattel, but it ought not to be so amongst you who follow the Lord.  Come into His way of thinking and live according to the Father’s will and know what is right and good.

Lord, the world is contrary to what You say.  It wants us to nourish ourselves without concern for the other.  You have intended, in part, that we learn to love as You love, and that means cherishing the other as we do ourselves.  Lead me Lord, to come to the place where I know what this means.  Lead me into Your love, learning to think of the other and to do what is right simply because it is right.

Lord Jesus, You lived, laughed, and loved as we all do while on earth, but with a mission.  You have given each of us who follow You a mission.  Lead me in the mission You have given me so that I would love those close to me and my neighbors as You love them.  Guide me to know that only in You is this possible, but that in You it is not only possible, but can and will happen.  Amen.

“So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself” (Ephesians 5:28)

A normal and healthy person will care for themselves without thinking.  So, of course you love yourself.  Love others as your love yourself.  But know that this includes the boundaries you place upon yourself too.  You need not tolerate things in the name of love.  Love others as you love yourself: grace where grace is needed and law where law is need and all in Christ’s compassion.

Lord, teach me how to love and how to live.  You have come to lead us into a new life that does not do things the way the world does.  Guide me, O Lord, in order that I may live into this life You have given me in grace.  Teach me the things I need to know so that I would be led by You and not by the world.  Grant that I would be balanced and live in common sense and not by the lack of wisdom in this world.

Lord Jesus, You are love Incarnate.  You confronted those who were against the truth.  You loved those whom the world declared unlovable.  You loved each one of us enough to take our place on the cross.  Lead me Lord in the way You have established so that I would walk in this way and learn how to become like You.  Teach me to love others, beginning with loving them  as I love myself.  Amen.

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:25-27).

If the husband is the head of the house, then he leads the way.  The world leads one way and Christ leads another.  The world does so by force and Christ does this in love.  This speaks of love.  If a husband is willing to die for his wife, does it not make sense that she would be willing to follow?  Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church.  The depth of this is beyond our ability to fully grasp.

Whether called to lead or follow, teach me the role and how to live it according to Your Word, O Lord.  Let me not follow the way of the world, which is just so much contention and strife.  Help me to walk in the way You have established and to go down the path You have created.  Help me to lift up others and learn to love as You love.  In You alone can this be done.  Guide me so that I may truly be one who follows You.

Lord Jesus, You have loved us so much that You gave up Your life in order that we may have true life.  In that kind of love, teach me to lead where I am called to lead and to follow where I am called to follow.  Teach me the difference and give me the humility to follow whomever You appoint.  May I be found faithful at life’s end, having done things the way You would have me do them.  Amen.

“But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything” (Ephesians 5:24).

This is perhaps one of the most unpopular verses in our day.  The question is: who are you or I to question this?  If this is the Word of God, then ought we not listen?  Or are we to argue with God?  Isn’t that what caused this mess in the first place?  Well then, perhaps we ought to listen to the Lord and see what comes of it when we simply obey what He is commanding.  What then?

If husbands do what the Lord says in the following verses, it would make the command easier.  But are we to obey only because it is easy?  What about the Lord telling us to take up our cross and follow Him.  Do you ever wonder what society would look like if we all really just did what He said?  No one has, so let us take care and, for ourselves, try and be obedient as the Lord commanded.

Jesus, there are times when what you ask is so hard.  Help me understand that You are Lord and You have not asked my opinion about these things.  Teach me how to be obedient as You were obedient.  Help me take up whatever cross You give me and carry it as I need to carry it.  Lead me Lord so that I may be led by You in and through all things no matter what the world thinks.  Amen.

“For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body” (Ephesians 5:23).

Sinful man uses order to lord it over others.  God uses order to keep things in harmony.  Do not take the things of the Lord and pervert them but use them as they have been created to be used.  The man is the head.  Thus says the Lord.  The world says we are all the same and each to his own.  If you decide to do this, so be it.  If the Lord decides, then walk in His counsel and learn what this means.  The man is to be the tie breaker, that’s what headship means.  No more, no less.

You have set everything in its course.  Those in this world continue in their rebellion against You and the order You have set.  Teach me more of Your order Lord in order that I would learn how life was meant to be lived.  Guide me according to Your precepts so that I would now and always look to You for wisdom.  Let me be in the order You have set and help me live in the way You intend.

Lord, the world hates Your order.  All around me I see where You are defied.  Lead me into humility, that place where I simply obey all that You command.  Guide me Lord so that where I am to be subject, I willingly follow.  Where I am to lead, help me to do so in love and with humility.  In all things, lead me to follow the example You have set that I may become like You in every way.  Amen.

“Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22).

Such an unpopular sentiment in our day.  This is not permission to put the little lady in her place.  The following verses make that clear.  Therefore, it is not what the world says.  The Lord is making a point in these passages about reliance and order in our lives, built upon the foundation of the family.  We all could learn the lesson of what it means to be subject.  The opposite is pride and self-will.

Lord You created me and I did not create You.  I am reliant upon You and You are not reliant upon me.  Guide me, O Lord, in the way of truth so that I would be led by You.  Guide me to see that You have created us with a right order in mind.  Lead me in that order, Lord, so that I would be guided by You and the law You have set in place.  Guide me Lord in the way of truth in order that I may walk in that way.

Lord Jesus, You are the truth.  You are the One who has set the course for humanity.  Set the course for me this day so that I may walk in the truth of You.  Lead me according to the Father’s will to seek what is right and true.  Keep me close to You Lord in order that I would learn to subject myself to You as You subjected Yourself to the Father for our sake.  Let me not cling to my life, but to You, the source of all life.  Amen.