{"id":14462,"date":"2013-09-06T01:00:40","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T06:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=14462"},"modified":"2013-09-05T22:22:08","modified_gmt":"2013-09-06T03:22:08","slug":"esther-chapter-120-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/06\/esther-chapter-120-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Esther Chapter 1:20-22"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been Vashti.\u00a0 Up until these past few years, I have not respected nor submitted to my husband.\u00a0 In fact, I would say rebellious<\/em> would be the word for me.\u00a0 And the saddest part, other than my disobedience to God, is that my \u201ckingdom\u201d witnessed my rebellion and they too lost respect for the king of our home—their daddy. \u00a0I wish I could say that I didn\u2019t know what I was doing, but the truth is, I did know! \u00a0As women, we can be manipulative, and have selfish motives. Maybe Vashti and I thought we would look stronger in the eyes of our people and the respect that we so deserved would be ours alone.\u00a0 But it didn\u2019t work out that way. Nor did it for Vashti.<\/p>\n

Physically, she paid with her life.\u00a0 Spiritually, I paid with mine.\u00a0 It\u2019s no coincidence that the\u00a0Scripture Darlene referred to were the verses that changed my family. \u00a0Ephesians 5:22-24 \u201cWives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.\u00a0 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior. \u00a0Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did you see that word, everything<\/em><\/strong>?\u00a0 That means we can\u2019t pick and choose what we submit to, nor can we pick and choose which laws of God\u2019s we are going to obey. \u00a0God doesn\u2019t say \u201cIf your husband is a believer, then respect him and obey him,” does He? \u00a0No, He doesn\u2019t. \u00a0And even if you are the spiritual leader in your home, like I was for a time, you still have to respect and pray for discernment and obey him. \u00a0God is going to honor your obedience and protect your decisions from harming your family.\u00a0 He will place a hedge of protection around your children as He promises.\u00a0 Pray for the Holy Spirit to be your guide and to fill your husband with wisdom as you practice obedience in this season of your life.\u00a0 Submission comes easier to some, while others have to swallow some pride and realize it is not about that, it\u2019s about being <\/strong><\/em>obedient<\/strong> in your walk with Jesus<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

This verse also applies to Jesus and the body of believers known as the church.\u00a0 We have trusted Jesus as our Savior and received eternal life.\u00a0 In the New Testament, Jesus, the Bridegroom, has sacrificially and lovingly chosen us to be His bride.\u00a0 Our responsibility is to be faithful to Him (Ephesians 5:24).<\/p>\n

2 Corinthians 11:2 says, \u201cI am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to Him.\u201d \u00a0As believers, we who are the Bride of Christ await with great excitement for the day when we will be reunited with Him. Until then we remain faithful to Him, and faithful to our earthly husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Queen must submit to the King\u201d is the most important message of all. Who is our King? Jesus<\/strong>.\u00a0 Who is His queen?\u00a0 We are<\/strong>!\u00a0 God commands that He is to be King over His household…that means all of us. \u00a0Esther 1:20-22 are the verses of today\u2019s lesson.\u00a0 We know that Vashti, for whatever reason, disobeys the king and does not show up at his banquet. As a result, he sends out a decree to his entire empire commanding that all husbands everywhere are to receive proper respect from their wives. The NLT translation says, \u201cevery man should be ruler of his own home and should say whatever he pleases.\u201d \u00a0This is the way the chapter ends.<\/p>\n

God is never mentioned in this book nor does He show up in any form.\u00a0 No one prays and no miracles are spoken of either.\u00a0 But God is in the shadows throughout the book. \u00a0He works behind the scenes, not with a visible hand of miracles, but with His invisible hand always providing. \u00a0For those of you who wonder if God is in your life because\u00a0you haven\u2019t seen Him in a while, or heard His voice in quite some time—Esther\u2019s life is like yours, and God\u2019s work in her own life will show you God\u2019s work in yours.<\/p>\n

\"Used<\/a>

Used with permission.
www.time-warp-wife.blogspot.com<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let’s Pray<\/span>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Heavenly Father, we are weak. \u00a0We know that You have hidden things in this book that are deep and hard for us to grasp.\u00a0 Help us to see that here is a story of all that You are able to do in our lives as we commit to being submissive and obedient to You.\u00a0 Help us to tear down the veil of pride and bitterness and open up to being that respectful wife that You have called us to be.\u00a0 Lord, if we aren\u2019t married, may we submit to You in such a way that Your people will be led to You by the way we are living our lives.\u00a0 Thank You for this book. \u00a0 Thank You for the Holy Spirit interceding on our behalf. We love You and praise You.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name we pray.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been Vashti.\u00a0 Up until these past few years, I have not respected nor submitted to my husband.\u00a0 In fact, I would say rebellious would be the word for me.\u00a0 And the saddest part, other than my disobedience to God, is that my \u201ckingdom\u201d witnessed my rebellion and they too lost respect for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":14472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[3574,224,3475,3591,3572,3512,425,3577,3575,589,3478,893,1022,3590,3576],"class_list":["post-14462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens","tag-2-corinthians-112","tag-church","tag-darlene-schacht","tag-ephesians-522-24","tag-esther-120-22","tag-esther-the-beauty-of-courageous-submission","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-holy-spirit-interceding","tag-jesus-the-bride","tag-kim-spring","tag-queen-vashti","tag-respect","tag-submission","tag-time-warp-wife-blogspot-com","tag-wives-respect-husband","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Love.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-3Lg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14462"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14490,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14462\/revisions\/14490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}