“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

There is no instruction book in raising children, but the wisdom of the Lord is available to all.  How many of our children are provoked by having been ignored, or raised by others.  The point is to be intentional about investing in the lives of others.  Start with your children.  Be an adult and learn both authority and responsibility.  Do what needs to be done for the sake of the other.

Lord, this is an age of great immaturity.  Help me to learn what it means to be responsible and mature.  Guide me in the way of the life You have given me by grace so that I would be as a father or mother to those who need to be nurtured.  Lead me in what is right and fitting in every circumstance to hold fast to the faith You have given me in order that I may knowingly share it with others.

Lord Jesus, though You were younger than many of Your disciples in earthly years, yet You were as a Father to them, leading them in the direction they needed to go.  Through me, Lord, help me to lead others that in this too, I may put on Your image.  Guide me in all things so that I would now and forever continuously grow in wisdom.  Teach me Your admonition and then lead me to live it.  Amen.

“Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth” (Ephesians 6:2-3).

God did not make the ten suggestions but the Ten Commandments.  Jesus died for our sin, not to do away with the law.  It is about fulfilling the law.  Yes, we are in grace, but this does not release us from seeking to fulfill the law.  Come then and learn what this means.  Learn how to be obedient to the Lord in and through all things.  Be guided by His goodness and mercy.  Know that in the Lord you learn how to live life.

Lord, I follow this world sometimes and do not follow through with what You are teaching me.  This is not a matter of taking certain steps, but about learning characteristics that are those of Jesus.  Teach me how to be obedient in all things Lord so that I may be conformed to the image of Christ.  Guide me to see that in You alone is the only hope to be able to move forward in this life.

Lord Jesus, You have come both to give the grace we need and provide the model of the godly life.  Lead me, O Lord, that I may be guided in Your grace and mercy to become obedient.  Teach me what this means and then enable me to do this without overlooking it.  In and through all things, continue to conform me to Your image so that I may become a child of the Heavenly Father.  Amen. 

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Ephesians 6:1).

We are saved by grace apart from works of the law, but we have not been freed from the law.  That is, God’s order that He has intended from the beginning still remains.  We need grace when we break the law, but the law is still in effect.  This is pretty simple.  Obey your parents.  Look at what the world does and see how things are twisted.  Then, apply what Jesus said and learn to obey.

Lord, this is simple and whether it is my parents of the flesh, those who mentor me, or even those who lead me, help me learn how to honor those whom You have appointed in these positions.  You have told us that we are to be as children.  Not childish, but as children.  Help me to learn all that this means so that I may be guided by Your goodness and mercy.  Teach me what it means to obey.

Lord Jesus, You were obedient even unto unto death on the cross.  You have said that we each are to take up our cross and follow You.  Help me Lord to learn all that this means and apply it to my life.  You demonstrated obedience to the Father in all things and here I hear that I am to be obedient to my parents.  Lead me to understand what this means and then teach me to be faithful.  Amen.

“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.