YOUR HUSBAND
By Juanita Clark
Your husband—what a responsibility! But, oh, what joy in knowing that God has given you the privilege to be the wife of a wonderful man! Your husband is not just another one of God’s human beings; your husband is a man called of God to preach this gospel. What a wonder that God has put him in your special care!
You have been given the honor of being placed the closest to your husband’s heart. You are an important ‘factor to his everyday happiness, and you can create the atmosphere in which your husband will live. This “atmosphere” is what surrounds your husband day by day, hour by hour and revival service after revival service. Days of peacefulness and contentment are what you should try to maintain. Satan knows that if he can put disharmony in a home, then it will impede both of your walks with God.
As an evangelist’s wife, your attitude concerning your husband’s call can be very important in easing the burden that he carries. The life that your husband lives as an evangelist is very demanding on his strength, personality, and perseverance. He must ad just from church to church and situation after situation. No one knows how taxing this can be unless they have been an evangelist or an evangelist’s wife. Standing with your husband in his call and not complaining about your circumstance can take a tremendous load off him, for he wishes so much for your happiness. When things are not going well, he needs you to help him look on the positive side. So many times you will be the only one he has to turn to for comfort and confidence. Let him know you believe in him and his calling.
The Apostle Paul stated in II Corinthians 2:11, “. . . For we are not ignorant of his [devices.” Be wise in watching for Satan’s ploys, especially prior to the church service. Often Satan will sense that something great is going to happen in the service that night and he will come to you and your husband and disrupt the flow of the Holy Ghost with tension over the pettiest of things. He knows that if he can get something to clog the pipeline from glory, then the results are in his hands. This is just what the devil wants.
My husband and I have recognized Satan’s schemes of bringing disunity between us in an attempt to make us ineffectual in the church service, but we have found the solution. Often we kneel and pray. Other times we know what Satan is trying to do and we simply refuse to give in.
Psalm 118:24 says, “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Therefore, every day can be great in the Lord, and you can be the one who can help make it great.
Taking into consideration all of the time and days you and your husband have together, you should become the very best of friends. Caring and sharing are necessary in developing a successful friendship and a strong relationship with your husband.
Destructive criticism never accomplished anything but hurt feelings. On the other hand, intelligent advice given in a loving manner is appreciated very much. No one knows your husband like you do. You know his faults and failures, but you also know his strengths and accomplishments. Always try to accent his positive strengths and minor on his negative characteristics.
Both you and your husband should put this to a test for just thirty days and see what a difference it will make. If you want your husband to be your best friend, then be a friend to him.
One of the most important things an evangelist’s wife must always remember is that she is her husband’s shadow. When people see you, they are seeing the image of your husband. You carry your husband’s name and everything that you say and do is as if your husband is saying and doing the same thing. When people see me, I want them to see the holiness and righteousness (inward and outward) that they know my husband believes and the Bible teaches. I never want my life or appearance to contradict the message of God that my husband preaches. I want everything that applies to my husband to be the same with me. I honor and respect my husband, and it pleases me if I know that he is proud of me. It is not only because I love him, but because I love his God. God comes first, my husband follows God, and I am going to follow my husband.
In I Corinthians 11:3, the Apostle Paul wrote, “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” He stated in this verse of Scripture a woman’s place in the Lord. If you desire to be used of God, then you will find that a proper relationship and understanding with your husband is essential. A woman cannot divorce herself from the fact that the way she loves and respects her husband has great bearing in her usefulness in the kingdom of God. If she will come under the umbrella of God’s plan—Christ, man, and then herself—she will find an avenue of spiritual release, a road of life filled with joy, and a highway of happiness that will end with the words from Jesus: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
We as evangelist’s wives should desire to be known as the virtuous woman was known in Proverbs 31:10-31. Let the heart of my husband safely trust in me (verse 11). I want to do him good and not evil all of my life (verse 12). I will not be afraid of work, but will work willingly (verse 13). Let me pay the price in my field of labor as an evangelist’s wife (verse 16). The life I live will exalt my husband (verse 23).
Never underestimate the power and influence that your godly life will add to your husband’s ministry. Only eternity will be able to declare the asset you were as a helpmate to your husband.
“Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates” (Proverbs 31:31).
