God is First. Always.

god first

Every Good Thing Begins With God. God is calling us to Love. Yet His Love is so hard to grasp. Therefore, His Love must grasp US first. For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:36)

There is no fear in love.
But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.
The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
(1 John 4:18)

There is no fear in love.
We need to know that kind of love.
So that we can love with that kind of love.

God must be First. Always. In all things.

The words of the song “Lead Me” by Sanctus Real provide a clear description of the pressure a man feels as a leader … and emphasize his desperate need for God’s help to be the leader He wants him to become. If you haven’t heard it, check it out on YouTube.

Therefore, the First Thing every Man needs to become the Leader he wants to be is … Jesus!

He is absolutely The Essential One, not only for a man’s well-being, but also for his family’s well-being. If a man is a Christian, he must reconnected with Him daily … if not moment-by-moment (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

[callout]If you’ve not yet invited Jesus into your life, you can do so now.
He’s with you – wherever you are in the process of life
– and eagerly waiting to hear from you!
It’s simple. Just talk to Him.[/callout]

An Unstoppable Team: Man, Woman, and The Lord

When a Godly Woman is the willing recipient of the fullness of God’s Love, she is free to love her Man in ways she could not have loved him if she were merely on her own.

Her Man benefits from being loved by her. He receives the love and moral support he needs to be able to lead well as he …

  • Listens to her.
  • Is her hero (i.e., treats her like a lady).
  • Pays attention to her response to his leadership.
  • Asks for what he needs from her (in addition to a great sex life in marriage).
  • And most of all, is courageous enough to allow himself to be vulnerable with her.

The Bottom Line: God is First. Always. In all things.

A Godly Woman receives love from God, loves God in return, then loves her Man out of her own fullness. And as her Man receives love from God, she gets to delight in following a Godly Man who knows how to lead gently and confidently. It’s irresistible joy!

We love because He first loved us.
(1 John 4:19)

Positively Amazing

men are amazing

Men are amazing! Positively amazing. You may not share my opinion. Especially if you’re a man who’s failed. Or a woman who’s been deeply hurt. But it’s a fact. An absolute fact. And the woman writing this? She’s been hurt by men. A lot.

I have sons.
Three of them.
Raised by a single mom.

And I wasn’t a psychologist back then. So I had no clue about what men were really like. Fortunately, my sons have forgiven me – for the most part – for all the mistakes I made.

My youngest son graduated from college
the same year I earned my doctorate at Biola University.
The same year I wrote my dissertation on mothers and sons.


I cried while writing it.
Because I had no clue what a boy’s experience
was like until I started doing research for that paper.

I wasn’t alone in my ignorance. Most women don’t understand how a man thinks. What he feels. Or why he behaves the way he does. Simply put, a man is complicated because a woman has no explanation for him … at least not one that he readily offers.

So women are confused about men. And men are sometimes confused about themselves. But mostly, men operate by Very Different Unspoken Rules than women do.


And one of those Unspoken Rules says there’s no need to explain the obvious.

However, what seems obvious to a man can be utterly confusing to a woman.

What do you know that ain’t so?

Men try to act as though they have it all together.
And most women erroneously believe that men think they have it all together.

But most men struggle with a degree of anxiety and/or depression. Almost every day. However, it plays out differently for men than it does for women.

  • Men worry if they will ever be good enough.
  • Some men fake it by adopting a domineering persona.
  • Other men withdraw, choosing to live a life of quiet desperation.

But the Lord sees a man differently than he sees himself.

Gideon had given up. Filled with anxiety about his future. Threshing wheat in a wine press. Hiding from the Midianites. Then the angel of the Lord showed up. Told Gideon what he thought of him. And a whole new conversation began. One that changed everything.

When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon,
he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

(Judges 6:12)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • How are men portrayed in the media today?
  • What are some commonly held beliefs about men?
  • What life experiences have affected the way you see men today?

EXERCISE

  • MEN: Ask the Lord how He sees you. Ask every day until you hear His answer. Then engage in an ongoing conversation with Him about who He made you to be.
  • WOMEN: Ask the Lord how He sees the man you love. Ask every day until you hear His answer. Then engage in conversation with the Lord about your role in his life.

A Heavenly Gift

submissive woman

When God created Adam, He knew that one person wouldn’t enough to fulfill His dreams. Although Adam was clueless about what he was missing, his All-Wise Creator wasn’t. The Lord knew man could not do so very well on his own. He would need someone to adore.

So God’s personal gift to Adam was his woman – created from his own body. So much like himself, yet so very different, Eve would have the natural capacity to complete Adam and to help focus his passion on someone outside of himself.

In the 21st Century, a man’s love for his woman is intended to spur him into the realization that she is God’s gift to him – his reason for living – his hope and his joy in the full experience of the Lord’s goodness.

Without a godly wife, a man will starve to death emotionally and relationally. Instead – with her by his side – he gets to feast on her femininity – to draw energy and inspiration from the closeness of her Beauty.


Feminine Strength + Submission = Beauty


Ladies, do you consider yourself a strong woman?
Many of us do.

But what is the Source of your strength?

By now, you’d think I’d know myself pretty well, and I do. Yet I’m amazed at how the Lord continually reveals truth to me … not only about others, but also about myself.

I knew I was pretty good at that “submission stuff” in my first marriage, but I didn’t realize until recently, that I didn’t understand the whole equation.

My submission wasn’t a strength-based choice.

It was rooted in my fear. Fear of displeasing my husband. And losing him. And because of my fear, I was never a truly strong woman. And I lost my husband.


Many women I meet are good at that “strength stuff” in their marriages.
But their strength is often false. Rooted in fear. Defensive.


Sometimes we toughen ourselves up to get through life, and we lose our true strength in the process. In other words, many women develop a false sense of strength as a defense against being hurt. But in the end, it causes them and their partners to experience unnecessary pain, and they both lose.

Defensiveness simply doesn’t work in marriage. Ever.

So what’s the source of our True Strength? It’s the Joy of the Lord. He is Our Strength and Our Song. We abide in Him, and He produces the Fruits of the Spirit within us. Truly, there’s nothing sweeter than that!

So learn to live in the reality that the Lord cherishes you as His Beloved Daughter. And that His desire is to teach your husband to cherish you, too!


Submission is a choice.


From True Strength you have the wonderful opportunity to choose Submission … to the Lord first, then to your husband. That’s what makes a woman truly Beautiful.

Clearly, we are created as partners.

Essential partners in the work of the Kingdom of God. Through Christ, we are redeemed to fulfill the purpose for which we were created. Man is the Leader, and woman is the Follower. He’s not a dictator, and she’s not a silent, powerless subject.

Fortunately, as we get things back in their proper, Heavenly perspective, man has what he needs to do his job, to live out his life passionately doing what God designed him to do.

If you are a wife, you are created to be your husband’s “rescuer” (Genesis 2), so it’s important to know exactly how to do that … and how to do it really well.

So much of your husband’s success depends on your walk with the Lord … and your desire to be the woman that he needs you to be.

As women, we have never been without relationship of another human being. We, therefore conclude that we are the “Relationship Experts.”

But most of us make the grievous error of believing it is our job … as the “Relationship Expert” … to fix, manage, and control a man. Indeed, it is most assuredly not! We have a much Higher Purpose!


A woman is to be her man’s Sweet Companion and Confidant.
Motivated simply by her presence, he will do almost anything to make her smile.


She’s there to let him know when he’s on the right track. Not to criticize him when he’s not. Her positive, affirming influence will cause her man to excel. And most importantly, to grow in his relationship with The Lord.

But what if she doesn’t think he’s on the right track?

A godly woman will always pray first, then expresses her concern lovingly (Ephesians 4:15) … and briefly. She may be assured that he heard her the first time. So her job from that moment forward is to pray for her mate with insight, fully confident that The Lord will answer her prayers.

If her man needs changing, The Lord will most surely do it (1 John 5:14). However, she must remain humble, knowing that it might be her The Lord desires to change.