Total Heart Change
[Guest Author: This article was written by April Cassidy. If you’re interested in guest writing for the Head Covering Movement please contact us.]
Externals are easy. It’s easy to kneel in a position of prayer physically for a few minutes and read a chapter of the Bible each day. It’s easy to go to church every Sunday and sit in a pew. It’s a simple thing to eat a little chunk of bread and drink a sip of wine or grape juice at church during the Lord’s Supper. It’s not even hard to put on a hat or scarf.
Some people think that the externals are all that really matters. If you look like you are doing the right thing, that is enough.
God does want us to obey Him outwardly – but He is even more concerned with the inward motives of the heart. God desires me to obey Him outwardly, yes! Absolutely. But He wants me to obey Him for the right reasons and with the right heart. I can go to church three times per week, read my Bible daily, pray, dress modestly, and even cover my head. These are very good things. In fact, they are commands of God for believing women. But why am I doing these things? It is sobering to consider that it is actually possible to do all of these things and to be far from God or to not even know Him.
Am I doing what I do because:
- I want to try to earn my salvation and impress God with my works rather than trusting what Jesus has done for me on the cross? (legalism)
- I want to impress other people and look more holy than anyone else?
- I want to look down on those who don’t do as much for God as I believe I do?
- Other people are doing it and I want to fit in?
Or am I doing these external things from a heart of joy, thanksgiving, humility, and a desire simply to please God in every area of my life? What God desires is joyful obedience springing forth from a heart that has been transformed by His grace. May God expose and refine my motives so that I do things for Him simply because I want to love, worship, honor, and please Him and as a way to express my gratitude for all that He has done for me through Jesus Christ!
When I cover my head for prayer at home or at church, may I never lose sight of the significance of this act:
- I am seeking to show reverence and honor to God and His Word.
- I am seeking to show reverence and honor for the God-given leadership of my husband.
Ultimately, my desire and willingness to honor my husband’s leadership is all about my relationship with Christ. My level of respect for my husband is a tangible indicator of my level of respect and reverence for God. The way I treat my husband is a pretty good gauge of how I am also treating God. If I am disrespectful of my husband, I am probably treating God with the same kind of disrespect. God counts the way we love and treat others and the way we obey Him, as how we show our love for Him.
I have equal worth, dignity, honor, and standing before God as a woman in the Body of Christ as the men do! I am a co-heir with Christ and with my husband. Praise God for that! This whole honoring my husband thing boils down to that I trust God in His sovereignty to lead me through my human husband. It is a test of my faith.
So when I cover my head – it is fitting to remember why I am covering my head and to treat my husband with appropriate honor and respect. Not because my husband deserves it all the time or because my husband is deity (he is human just like me) – but because Jesus deserves my highest level of reverence all the time.
April Cassidy is a wife, mother of two, part-time pharmacist, and blogger in Columbia, South Carolina. She grew up in the Southern Baptist church and graduated from the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy. April started the PeacefulWife blog in January 2012 and the Peaceful Single Girl blog three months later. You can visit her website at peacefulwife.com or pick up her book on Amazon.
