by Elyse Fitzpatrick
Christ … is your life.
Colossians 3:4

In Christ you have everything you need, and because of that, wives, you’re free to respect and submit to your husband because you have a heavenly husband who has loved you and will care for your soul and give you all you need. You don’t need to fight for your own way. You can trust Jesus because He knows all about submission to ungodly authority. You don’t have to worry anymore about whether or not you’re loved. Jesus loves you and has chosen you. You are His beloved bride. You have a new identity.
Husbands, you are free now to love your wives generously, freely, joyfully, and sacrificially, because your Savior has loved you, and you don’t need to demand respect or submission or anything else. He’s given you everything you need. You no longer need to fight for what is rightfully yours or demand submission in the kitchen or in the bedroom. You don’t have to neglect your family to worship at the altars of the NFL or the NBA or the MLB or anything else on your television. You can lay down your life for your wife because Jesus is with you, and He knows by experience what loving a sinner is like. What she thinks of you is not your identity. Whether or not she desires you is not your identity. Christ is your life.
Children, you are free now to submit to the authority over you. Jesus knows by experience what submission to authority is like. He submitted to His heavenly Father, and He submitted to His earthly mother and father, and Jesus will give you all the love and respect you truly need. Children, you are forgiven and you are righteous.
Parents, you’re free to love your children and train them in the gospel because Jesus knows what it’s like to love little sinners, and He will sustain you. You no longer have to worry about being the perfect parent because you are a forgiven parent. You are forgiven for all the times you discouraged your children or provoked them to anger. You are loved. Christ is your life.
Can you see? Everything you need is in Christ. He is your identity. You are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved. And as the Lord has loved and forgiven you, so also now you are free to love and forgive.

Thought to Remember for Today

Even though your heart may be resonating with these truths, you’re going to have to come back here over and over again, because the opportunities to get angry and judge or to love and forgive come to us over and over again. So turn to grace every day, over and over again. Remember, you have His identity.

Fitzpatrick, E. (2016). Grace untamed: a 60-day devotional. Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook.