Fixing Your Eyes

A woman is at odds with her husband. They have not been seeing eye-to-eye for the over seven months. She has been praying for a change.

One morning as she prepared the family for church her husband reveals to her, he is not joining them.

Inside this woman is having a fit, nevertheless, she presented herself in a loving manner. Not once did she question him, instead she played gospel tunes as she tugged the children and herself to church alone.

This wife is suffering from communicating how she honestly feels towards her husband’s actions. She is frustrated but yet is exercising the fruit of gentleness to her husband (Galatians 5:22-23).

This situation reminds me of Paul telling us to “fix our eyes on Jesus, who for joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame” Hebrews 12:1-2. Paul wants us to imagine how Christ displayed perfect love by tolerating the torture and humiliation on the cross.

This woman whom is striving to get her family closer to God refrains from speaking her mind not because she is afraid of him but because of his position. She bites her tongue because all the prayer request to bring her and her spouse closer will be undone if she has a rage and lashes out, what she feels.

Her toleration of pain is based on her fixing her eyes on Christ. Suffering for righteousness is an honorable virtue. Christ endured suffering for us so we may have eternal life.

How do you respond when you are suffering and being humiliated? Do you seek revenge? Have you composed an escape plan? Do you have a nasty note to convey your feelings? It is not wise for us to speak of things when we are upset for it will lay a foundation of more damage.

Maybe you keep feeling betrayed or disrespected. Perhaps your pride is being trampled and you just don’t get it. Don’t let bitterness consume you.

Consider being more Christ like when you are in agony. Pray to God to help you be more as the Lord. Ask the Father to enhance your personal spiritual growth. Call upon the Lord to glorify and please Him in your marriage or any other relationship. For it is better to be “kind and tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32).