🥝🥑🍋‍🟩🫒🍐🥦God’s perfect will is that the thrilling and ambrosial fragrance that filled your marriage during its beginnings should be retained and maintained. And no one is going to ensure that except you and your spouse.

🥦Today, we are going to look at another “Fly” that can turn a fragrant marriage into a putrid, stinking, and hollow coexistence. The name of that Fly is: The Fly of Insubordination and Obduracy.

🥝🥑🍋‍🟩🫒🍐🥦INSUBORDINATION (REFUSAL TO SUBMIT)
Insubordination is defined as the deliberate refusal to obey a lawful order or reasonable instruction from someone in a position of authority.

🥝The “Fly of insubordination” has fallen into several marriages and turned their fragrance into a horrifying and stinking stench.

🍋‍🟩Last week, a reverend gentleman forwarded a video to me.

🥑In the video, a preacher told the true-life story of a married woman who allowed the “Fly of insubordination and obduracy” to cheaply destroy her marriage.

🥝🥑🍋‍🟩🫒🍐🥦 “DARLING, GET ME FRESH WATER…”
The lady and her husband had peacefully eaten together. Since she was the first to rise from the dining table, she washed her hands and left.

🫒When her husband finished eating, he found the water too dirty to use, and so he called his wife to come, pour the dirty water away, and fill the bowl with clean water for him to use.

🍐The wife told him to get up and get himself some clean water and wash his hands. She refused to obey her husband.

🍋‍🟩But what is the command of the Bible to all Christian married women? It is this:

“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, AS UNTO THE LORD.” (Ephesians 5:22).

🥦A wife is to submit to the authority of her husband exactly as she would submit to Jesus Christ.

🍐If Christ were to dine with her, and she rose from the meal table first and Christ asked her to change the dirty water, would she refuse? Of course, she would not. God wants every wife to see the Person of Christ in her husband and obey him as she would Christ.

🫒The next day, the husband of the woman told her to apologise, and she bluntly refused.

🥝On another occasion, soon after, he told her, “Look, I’m no longer angry with you. All I want is for you to apologise.” Again, she hardened her heart and allowed the “Fly of obduracy and stubbornness” to lead her on. She obstinately refused to apologise.

🥝🥑🍋‍🟩🫒🍐🥦 AND THE HOUSE GOT LOCKED UP
While she was away at work one day, her husband bought new padlocks and locked up the house.

🥑When she got home from work and found her home locked and new padlocks in place, she called her husband, but he refused to take her call.

🥦Instead of sitting there and patiently waiting until he returned, she went to a hotel to spend the night.

🥦Later, she went to a preacher whom she knew her husband respected—the man who narrated the incident in the video I watched—and pleaded with him frantically to take her to her husband. She said she was ready to say, “I’m sorry,” even a thousand times.

🫒Why the sudden change of heart and the willingness to apologise a thousand times if she wasn’t sure that she was wrong?

🍋‍🟩The preacher was willing to assist, mediate, and see peace return to the once-happy union.

🌲He called her husband right in her presence and told him he was coming with his wife and that she was ready to say, “I’m sorry.” The husband replied that it was too late.

☘️And that’s how the marriage ended in divorce.

🌳The Fly of insubordination and obduracy undid the madam.

🥝🥑🍋‍🟩🫒🍐🥦 PLEASE, PAY CLOSE ATTENTION
There is no scenario in life from which there is nothing to learn. The story of the clearly avoidable collapse of this marriage is heartbreaking, but there is at least one lesson to learn.

🥝🥑🍋‍🟩🫒🍐🥦 SUBMISSION IS NOT NEGOTIABLE
God’s Word is very clear about husbands and wives. They are one flesh. Neither is superior to the other, yet they are not equal in authority. Every wife needs to understand this and always remember it.

🍋‍🟩God’s Word says:

“23 For the husband is the HEAD OF THE WIFE, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.” (Ephesians 5:23–24)

🫒In another place, the Bible still says:

“3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and THE HEAD OF THE WOMAN IS THE MAN” (1 Corinthians 11:3a).

🥑Therefore, the husband is the HEAD of the wife. The wife should be subject to her husband in EVERYTHING, just the same way the Church is subject to Christ in EVERYTHING.

🥝But unfortunately, the wife in the story above was silently claiming equality with her man and contending with him. It’s just not correct.

🥝🥑🍋‍🟩🫒🍐🥦 ONE IS HIGHER
Yes, in marriage, husband and wife are lovers, one flesh, sweethearts, heartthrobs, darlings, beloveds, dearests, nearest, honey, and all the other pet names of endearment that they call each other. But they are not equal in authority. One is higher than the other, and that is the husband.

🍐He paid a dowry on the wife, she bears his name, and the offspring they beget are all called by his name and not hers. All these and other Scripture-based reasons show that a wife should not contest authority with her husband as this woman did and, in the process, lost the precious life-base called marriage.

🥝🥑🍋‍🟩🫒🍐🥦 CONCLUSION
Every spouse should be sober and vigilant against the “Flies” that ruin matrimonial fragrance.

🥦And always remember that the “Flies” we are talking about are not the physical houseflies (Musca domestica). They are simply foolish, unwise, and unreasonable behaviours.

🥝We are not condemning the woman in the story above, but refusing to get her husband clean water to wash his hands was NOT wise behaviour.

🫒If he were her elder brother of the same parents and they ate together, would it have been out of place for him to ask her to get him clean water to wash his hands? No.

🥝Spouses, please, mind your behaviour and conduct towards each other.🫒🥑

💕♥️🩷Tonight’s Bedroom Assignment:
Re-read this devotional together just before bedtime and discuss it with open and sincere hearts.

 ✝️Altar Call: Jesus Christ is calling you! Come to Him today in genuine repentance. Believe in Him and be saved!

 🌡️🧪⚗️Scientific Info To Boost Your Marriage:
🔬”Research on married couples indicates that the positive emotional and physical “afterglow” following sexual activity can last for up to 48 hours, actively reinforcing marital satisfaction and pair-bonding during daytime hours”.🔬

🎷🪘🎙️🪗 HALLELUJAH!
📢PRAISE THE LORD!