We talked last week about our marriages and toward the end of the week I mentioned the issue of relational idolatry – where we put someone – our husbands, maybe a friend, maybe even our children – where God should be. We depend, and expect, that person or persons to fulfill expectations that really have no place in an earthly relationship but by doing so, we usurp the heavenly relationship we should be having with our Heavenly Father.
So this week we’re going to talk about putting and keeping God first. Sunday, this was the very thing that my pastor focused on at church – he just started a series on Battles, and the first sermon was on the Battle for Our Minds, and I will be mentioning and adding to some of the things he talked about.
I think this is a serious battle that many military wives deal with, the battle of the mind. I know it’s something I deal with and dealt with during my husband’s deployment last year, and I think it goes back to this false notion of strength that so many of us feel like we have to carry around – we decide we have to be Military Wife Strong and so we-intentionally or unintentionally-leave out God in the process.
Maybe part of it also goes to the Superwoman ideology so many of us subscribe to. We are determined to make it all work, and if it doesn’t, it must be something I’ve done or that I’m lacking in. I remember a military wife who was facing some huge hurdles last year after her husband left for Afgahnistan and I gently tried to remind her that she didn’t have to be Superwoman. But she had a good question – “how do I not try and be Superwoman when there is so much that has to be done and I’m the only one to do it?”
I think it is not so much the to-do list you have that’s the problem, but it is the source of how that to-do list is going to get done, where the reliance is coming from, the strength – yours or His?- that can be what stops things from working.
When our strength doesn’t cut it
The story in Matthew 14 of Peter and Jesus walking on the water comes to mind. You know, when Peter first stepped out onto that lake, so excited, so ready to do this extraordinary thing of walking on water with his Savior, Jesus, he was fired up, exuberant, in awe perhaps. But as he took those first few steps, he took his eyes off of Jesus and instead started seeing the situation from a different view – the waves that were crashing and churning all around him, the dark sky above, maybe he started thinking about all of the waterlife that was swimming around, just under his toes.
The Message translation says that Peter “lost his nerve” (Matt. 14:30) and he started to sink. Oh boy, have I been there! The list of honey-do’s gets longer, the bank account dwindles, your child and your husband both need you, you have deadlines piling up, things that need to get done and the light at the end of the tunnel is looking very very small. You’re worn out, frazzled and not sure what to do next. You start to lose your nerve. Sound at all like something you’ve experienced?
So what does Peter do? Does he look around for a lifejacket? Does he try to swim his way back to the boat? Does he hope that one of his buddies will come get him? No. He quickly calls out to the only One who can save him. Jesus.
“Master, Save me!”
Peter calls out the name of the One he has grown the closest to, the One he knows has never let him down, has never given him up, has never turned his back.
And Jesus responds by reaching down and grabbing Peter’s hand. The Bible says that “Jesus didn’t hesitate” (Matt. 14:31).
Jesus won’t hesitate with us either. He responds when we call out to Him. We don’t have to be Military Wife Strong. There is something more God has for us, but we must know Him better. And the best way to do that is knowing how to keep Him first.
I would love this series to be a bit more interactive so please comment and let me know your thoughts about today’s post.
How hard is it to keep God first in your life? What are the things that come between you and God? How have you overcome those things?
Tomorrow: A Passionate Heart
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