Giving Up Your Rights

Giving Up Your Rights



Philippians 2:4 Everyone should not be just paying attention to his own interests, but also to the needs of others.
5 You should have the same attitude that was in Christ Jesus:
6 He had the very essence of God but did not claim His right to be equal to God.:
7 Instead He emptied Himself and assumed the role of a servant, taking on the image of a mere man.
8 And having identified himself as man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death; death by crucifixion. (GMR)

Claiming your rights seems to be one of the most important things for most people. They will fight to the bitter end just to defend their rights.

But Jesus showed what we should be doing with our rights. He had probably the greatest rights that anyone could have. He had the right to be honored as God. But He gave us His rights out of love for us, so that we could be blessed and happy.

Consider now the rights that you have in your marriage. As a husband or wife you have certain marital rights, which you could legally demand. But does this show your spouse how much you love them? Does this make your spouse want to spend the rest of their life with you?

Just think of what each one of us have gained from Jesus giving up His rights to come and die for us. And in the end He benefited from it too. He was exalted above all things to the right hand of God. And now he has us as His Body, to make Him complete.

Do you realize that without your spouse you are not complete? That is why you got married in the first place. So if you would like to make your spouse the happiest person around, and at the same time benefit from the best marriage ever, here is what you must do.

LEARN TO GIVE UP YOUR RIGHTS!

Here is a simple project for you to do for the next week. Each day when something happens where you feel that you have a right to something, try giving up that right.

For example, if your spouse wants you to do something and you feel you have the right to refuse. Why not try submitting to their desire and giving up your right?

I am not just talking about the wife submitting here. In fact it could be the complete opposite. It could be that the husband has a right to demand submission from his wife, but this time he lets her do what she wants to do.

You might not even be able to think about what you consider to be a right. But after a week of looking out for it, you can start to make a list of the things you believe you have a right to. You might be amazed to find that any conflicts in your marriage have actually come every time a right is violated.

And of course, most important of all. This is not a one way thing. It is no use just one partner giving up their rights. Unless you both do it, the marriage will become one sided and selfish, and nobody will be happy.

Give it a try and see what happens.