Swept Away by Grace- A Study in I Peter (part 13)—Adorned in Humility, Love and Kindness by Grace
Once upon a time I met Pedro Barba (Arroyo), Jr and fell madly in love with this man. I felt so blessed that God would so graciously bring him into my life—after all I was divorced twice by the age of 22 and knew that God must have seen me as a failure—his oops child. At least that is what I had been taught. I wondered how in the world I had gotten to that place as I had been the exemplary young student for Christ—oh, but that is another story for another time as we must move on here. So, at 23 like a fairytale I met and fell in love with Pedro Barba, Jr. I felt that God had shown forth His mercy and His grace by placing this man in my life. After a somewhat rocky courtship we married and my fairytale continued—well not always a fairytale; but neither is any marriage. There was the fact that he professed to be an atheist; but, I knew God had a plan and well, ok the scripture about not being unequaled yoked—I kind of ignored for a moment. Throughout that marriage there were many trials, tribulations and even tempestuous storms; but the one thing that endured was love. Many well meaning Christians would tell me that any trials were a result of my sin of having disobeyed God. Don’t get me wrong here, I am not condoning my disobedience nor anyone else’s. Yet, we do fail God on a regular basis with our doubts, worries and selfish desires.
Truth is we should all be condemned; yet, His mercies are new every morning and it is because of His faithfulness that we are not consumed by our sins. Christ covered it all on the cross. It is not by works of these guilty hands that I have gained salvation.
We must fight against sin; perhaps, I didn’t at that time know how. I know that I wanted to please God; but, beyond prayer and reading my Bible—I didn’t know how. Then also in my naivety I believed that with enough love and since God was so gracious to bring Pete into my life; God would save him and we would live happily ever after. That road would take me down some of my greatest sorrows and my greatest joys. It was on that part of my journey that I truly learned of God’s Unconditional Love for me and that I had been wonderfully made. Finally, I began to learn that I wasn’t God’s “oops child”; I was chosen with all my failures, because God saw me as His Beloved Child and He saw the finished me that He could create by His transforming work in me. God also gave me the gift of always seeing Pete’s heart. I spent many hours in prayer and repentance.
All of this as the introduction, we will move on in the studies of I Peter before returning to tell you the rest of the story.
I Peter 3: (NIV) “Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives,2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. 3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes.4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”
So, wives—if you are married to someone who does not know Christ; you are to live out your faith by actions not by words or preaching. Let the inner beauty of gentleness, love and humility be the adornment that draws your husband to Christ. Neither is Peter saying you cannot wear adornments, makeup or fix your hair. He is saying that should not be your main beauty—your spirit of love and kindness should be.
Now, let us return to the story so that you might understand more. As the years went by and I continued to grow in grace and understanding, Pete began to say—“You have something in you that make you strong, kind, and forgiving always. I want that.” Then I was able to explain that it was God. Little by little Pete then began reading the Bible and discovering truth. He accepted Christ 6 months before he died. So, is there the fairytale ending? Yes, because of Christ—there is “happily ever after.” One day I will join Pete in heaven and rejoice with him. Yet, even that joy will be small in comparison to the joy of seeing Christ in all His Glory.
I am not telling you to marry an unbeliever in disobedience to God because it did work out in my case—only God judges the heart and I know the tears of my repentance before God. Yet, if you think that your sins are too great for God to fix; you are also wrong. I remember a magician in Branson that I saw once who at the end of his show presented a picture of what God had done in his own life. He took a cord and began cutting it into pieces-he with each cut described something broken in his own life. Then he placed the broken pieces into a bag, waved his hand over it and said, “When you hand all the broken pieces of your life to God, He magically puts them all back together.” He pulled the chord out of the bag—whole again. God took all my failures, my brokenness as I turned them over to Him and used them to shine forth the light of the gospel into Pete’s life and others along this journey. Not by works of my own hand, but by His Grace and Power. We cannot win others by words as much as by our lives.
I urge you to listen to these words of “Not What My Hands” by Aaron Keyes.
New International Version (NIV)
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©2014 Effie Darlene Barba
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