Again, another late post, but I think the content and lesson we covered last week is something that begs to be covered again.
If you remember we covered the principle of God's Ultimate Authority. To recap here's a line from our study book; "There is a direct relationship between what God ultimately wants to do through you and the authorities He places over you." We discussed that those who are placed over you in ruling positions are there because of God and through them God is directing and preparing your life in the future.
Here's what the apostle Paul has to say about it from a letter he wrote to the Romans about ultimate authority and what it meant to those people living under the total rule of the largest military super power of their day.
"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." (Romans 13:1)
Clearly Paul was directing his comments towards the early church and a people who lived almost two thousand years ago, however through the amazing perfection of God's plan, the Bible is as real to us now as to them back then.
So what do we do now?
"Jesus once said that the truth sets us free. God is truth, and it is under His authority that we gain true freedom."
It is a universal fact that you are always going to be under someone else, even if you are the top enchilada God claims supreme rule over your life.
How does that make you feel?
Well to be sure it can come as a suprise to most people and some may even begin to think that they are oppressed "under God's thumb" or they may feel unjustly forced to live a life under God's rule.
Though it is true that we are forced to always be under God, that doesn't mean that people always choose to allow Him to rule their lives. Notice in your own life those around you who choose to live their own way, or people who don't submit to authority. Do you think that their lives are pleasing to God?
Remember that "You cannot pursue intimacy with God and ignore your conflicts with authority." You can't be truly close to Jesus and try and push away from from those people who have authority over you.
In our lives we choose to follow the rules we like to hear. We stray from the boundaries in our lives thinking that we are blazing new trails into uncharted territories or making waves against those trying to hold us down. But the truth is that Jesus broke the chains of this world's authority long before us and blazed a trail through the bonds of the stuffy rules and regulations and established a better way, THE WAY to live our lives.
Here's what Jesus said in what we as Christians know as the Great Commision, or the most important directive given to us by our LORD.
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20)
So then here is the question, is God going to be in control of your life or are you?
