Daily Treasure

It’s tough for today’s woman to understand the subservient role women played in biblical cultures and emulate it today. Subservience doesn’t mean women should be doormats. Rather, it is a submission like Christ exhibits with the Father by following His example and willingly becoming subordinate to “the big picture.” Submitting to a husband is merely seeking the right path side by side with a scriptural map.

HOW DO YOU RELATE?

Read Ephesians 5:21-33. If you are married, pray for God to reveal to you how you can submit to your husband as the church should submit to Christ. If you are widowed or divorced, prayerfully consider how your marriage was influenced positively or negatively by your concept of submission. If you are single, pray for your ability to submit to a future mate or your ability to submit more fully to Christ. Make notes on your prayers.

Mona Dukes

South Carolina

PRAY TOGETHER: Pray for Missouri State WAC Meeting this month.

God’s commandment for children to honor father and mother includes the promise of a long and full life. Scripture also emphasizes obedience to parents. Honor comes through respect and love. Obedience involves accepting parental authority and doing what they say. Ward and June Cleaver are fictional; no parent measures up to that model. But, many times, children spend their whole lives ridiculing or talking bad about their parents. No matter how un-Christ-like our parents, God still calls us to respect and obey them to the level our Christian faith allows. Poor parenting is not a license for a child to trash his parents; rather, it’s a challenge for a child to find and focus on the good qualities—however masked or miniscule.

HOW DO YOU RELATE?

Read Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16, and Ephesians 6:1-3.

In your notebook write down how you have honored your parents (i.e., speaking well of them to others and being polite to them). Also write down ways you have obeyed your parents (i.e., following their spiritual teachings). If you have had a tumultuous relationship with one or both parents, write down ways you can still honor and obey them according to Scripture, even if they’re gone already.

Mona Dukes

South Carolina

PRAY TOGETHER: Pray for the Ohio State WAC Meeting this month.

Thankfully, good behavior is also hereditary. When you bow your head to pray as an adult, do you ever travel back to the time when your mother or father tucked you in at night and listened to your childlike prayers? Don’t discount even the smallest encouragement that molds faith. God magnifies every instruction to the next generations and brings about great spiritual events as a result.

HOW DO YOU RELATE?

Read Ephesians 1:16. Paul reminds the Gentile Christians that he prays for them constantly. As wonderful as these prayers are, how much more special are the prayers of a parent for his children. If you are a parent, pray for God’s guidance to help you lead your family toward the light. Consider the influence your own parents had on you. Check out the following biblical figures and see how their lives positively influenced their families. Make notes.

Abraham: Genesis 18:19

Jacob: Genesis 35:2

Joshua: Joshua 24:15

David: 2 Samuel 6:20

Job: Job 1:5

Cornelius: Acts 10:2

Lydia: Acts 16:15

Jailor of Philippi: Acts 16:31-34

Crispus: Acts 18:8

Lois: 2 Timothy 1:5

Mona Dukes

South Carolina

PRAY TOGETHER: BRAZIL: Pray for Valentine’s Day banquet at the Belo Horizonte Church June 13.

Therapy rooms are filled with people blaming their parents for all of the ills they suffer. Alcoholics claim their fathers were drunks. Immoral people point to a cheating parent. Abusive parents blame mothers who beat them. Studies have proven that such transference of habits is, indeed, cyclical. Sadly, history also proves this true. The mere title “Herod” can make us shiver when we consider the deeds of all the men who bore that name. Of the four generations of Herods mentioned in Scripture, each proved as evil as his ancestor. 

HOW DO YOU RELATE?

Read about these evil rulers and their evil influence on society and their descendants:

Herod the Great: Matthew 2:1-22

Herod Antipas: Matthew 2:19-22; 14:1, 9; 14:1; Luke 3:19-20; 23:7, 12

Herod Agrippa I: Acts 12:1-23

Herod Agrippa II: Acts 25:13–26:32

In your notebook under “family” write down any bad traits that have manifested themselves in your parents and grandparents and prayerfully consider how you can make every effort to stop them from passing through you into your children.

Mona Dukes

South Carolina

PRAY TOGETHER: Pray especially for families as they relate to each other on a daily basis

Sibling rivalry has been around since Cain snipped, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Even in today’s society Cain’s deadly resolution of the rift between him and Abel is considered severe. Though Paul doesn’t specifically speak about familial brothers and sisters, he references the spiritual ones in most of his writings, encouraging the churches to welcome and love their brothers and sisters in Christ, even those like Onesimus—a biblical “Cousin Eddie” if you will—who were outcasts before becoming believers.

HOW DO YOU RELATE?

Read Matthew 18:21-22. How often are we to forgive our literal or spiritual brothers?

Now read the short book of Philemon. While reading, keep in mind that Onesimus, the slave to which Paul refers, ran away from Philemon and also stole from him. Onesimus has become a believer in the interim, and Paul writes to his former master encouraging him to reinstate Onesimus to his good favor and accept Paul’s repayment of the debt he owes. He reminds Philemon that Onesimus is now a “brother” and not a slave. How can you apply such forgiveness to your own siblings—both blood and spiritual—and resolve conflict that may have boiled for years?

Mona Dukes

South Carolina

PRAY TOGETHER: Pray for the Texas State WAC Meeting in June.

Sometimes we try to hide some members of our family from the public eye. Like crazy Cousin Eddie in a popular Christmas movie, some of our kin add a little too much color to the family tree. Isn’t it amazing, then, that God chooses to list some very colorful characters in some of the “begat” line-ups, particularly in Christ’s lineage? It’s as if He is saying even in this detail, “Everyone is important.”

HOW DO YOU RELATE?

Read Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38. Matthew, writing to the Jews, proclaimed Jesus the Messiah and Eternal King, while Luke, writing to the Gentiles, gave them an accurate, factual account of Jesus’ life and declared him fully human, yet without sin…the perfect Savior. Does the difference in these two lists cause spiritual confusion or conflict within you? If so, know that, even today, two different writers from two different perspectives would record things with their own personal twists based on their individual interests and experiences.

Mona Dukes

South Carolina

PRAY TOGETHER: Register now the the WNAC National Convention in Cincinnati, OH, July 20-21.

I became a member of WNAC at the age of 19, while attending with my late Mother-in-law, Kathryn McCraney. She taught me to love being a part of “God’s missionary arm of Free Will Baptists.” I learned to appreciate and support our missionaries and our denomination’s efforts to spread the Word of God and His love to others. Being a member of the local WAC (then the Woman’s Auxiliary), and the Florida State Line District, I was surrounded and mentored by women of great faith and dedication. These women made such an impact on my life as they devoted and sacrificed time, talents and finances for bake sales, Tupperware parties, Stanley products parties, special prayer meetings—whatever it took to raise monies to support our missionaries and spread the gospel of Christ. After 40 years of being a part of WNAC, I have never gotten over the emphasis [and impact] this group has had on my life and the things I have learned from being a member. From loving and supporting missions, the fellowship and sisterhood of godly women to fulfilling our part of the Great Commission, WNAC has taught me what being a “woman God can use” is all about.

Jean McCraney

Alabama

PRAY TOGETHER: Pray today for friends who share your joys as well as your burdens.