Restoration: Covering Part 2

My second lesson from the Lord about staying under my covering was on a canoe trip down the river while we were camping.   

For those that have not paddled a canoe before, it takes two: someone to steer and someone to navigate. Both people must paddle together or the boat will be much more difficult to steer and move much slower through the water. The person in the rear of the canoe is generally the one that steers the boat with the oars while the person in front generally navigates. The navigator has a very important job: to let the person in the rear know which direction to steer so the canoe doesn’t hit anything in the water.

During the time in the canoe, I was the navigator and my husband steered. It was important that my husband steer because it takes strength to make sure the canoe stays straight and maneuvers correctly. It occurred to me as we were making our way down the river that my husband could not see around me or the things in front of us in the water and it was solely up to me to tell him where the danger was so he could steer us away.

In the first example, my husband led me and all I could do was follow him, trusting he could see the markers on the path. In the second example, I had to rely on my husband’s strength to steer us in the right direction as I gave out warnings of the traps and dangers I saw ahead of us. The second lesson is a great example of how my husband and I have to work together to keep our marriage moving forward and avoiding the traps the enemy can lay for us.  What would have happened if I had tried to navigate and steer the canoe by myself without relying on my husband to be my strength? 

Now that I have said all of that, let me walk briefly down a parallel trail.  Submission to our husbands and allowing them to be the covering for us God intended them to be does not exonerate us from the fact that we are responsible for our own personal relationship with the Lord. We do not have to go through our husbands to know Christ and the Father personally. He knew us before we born.

Jeremiah 1:5

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

He knew us before we were born. He didn’t suddenly meet us when we married our husbands. In fact, Jehovah told Isaiah to tell Israel in Isaiah 43:1:

But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel; “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine.”

Wow, He knew us before we were born and He knew our names. It is amazing to me to think the God of the Universe knows my name. He knows who I am and I am His. He declared it to be so! When the God of the universe makes such a declaration, who are we to argue? Why must we believe the Father of Lies, Satan, and believe we have no worth of value and are worthless? 

Matthew 6:26:

“Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

In fact, we are so valuable to the Father that He sent His only Son into the world that we might be redeemed and spend eternity with our Father. His Son died so we could have a relationship with Him. The next scripture is probably the very first verse any of us learned when we first heard the message of the Messiah.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

He did not want death to overtake us and prevent us from spending eternity with our Maker so He gave His only Son to redeem our souls. I believe that makes us all pretty valuable to the Creator and God of the Universe. Not only are we that valuable to Him, but just as we seek to protect our children from harm, so does God the Father.

Psalm 91:9-11

9-Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place,

10-No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;

11-For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.

We each are responsible for our own salvation and the condition of our hearts.  We each are responsible for being obedient to the Word of God.  We each are responsible for making sure our covering is intact as we walk through the process of restoration.