God's Authority

YEAH SURE! READ THE STORY AGAIN!

God has placed a system of authority in our world that requires faith to operate under its boundaries: fathers responsible for sons and daughters, employers responsible for employees, government leaders responsible for the people, church leaders responsible for church members. These are authority structures God has placed in our lives to protect and guide us to His will. Some confuse position with worthiness or qualifications of that position. It is the position that God works through. The fact that an authority may not be a Christian may have no bearing on whether God can work through him as your authority. It is only when that authority counsels against a biblical mandate that we should not follow that person's guidance. The hand of the king is in the hand of God.

Prov 21:1
The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.

Today, we find few who understand this system of authority God has ordained. It requires great faith to operate in this realm. Yet Jesus said that when we understand this, we demonstrate the kind of faith that He rarely sees. Be a person of rare faith! See the authorities placed in your life as those God is using to protect you.

13 Let every person pbe subject to the governing authorities. For qthere is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you rwill receive his approval, 4 for she is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, tan avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also ufor the sake of conscience. p Tit. 3:1; 1 Pet. 2:13 q [John 19:11]; See Dan. 2:21 r 1 Pet. 2:14 s 2 Chr. 19:6 t 1 Thess. 4:6 u 1 Pet. 2:19; [Eccles. 8:2] The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Ro 13:1-5).

God help us to see and understand this great truth through the perspective of faith, hope and love.

Grace and Peace,

Ed

http://www.urcwc.org/

Authority

As I was reading Bill Gothard's "daily sucess" I was especially inspired and bore witness with two paragraphs in particular. He wrote:

God’s pattern of working through structures of authority is well established throughout Scripture. He works with children through their parents (see Ephesians 6:1), citizens through His ministers in government (see Romans 13:1–6), believers through church leaders (see I Thessalonians 5:12–13), and employees through their employers (see Colossians 3:22–23). Within these structures of authority and responsibility, God gives direction, provision, and protection.

Human authorities can also misuse their position and become abusive, unwise, and irresponsible. It is in these difficult cases that we need to ask God for wisdom to make wise appeals, trust God to direct their hearts, and ultimately refuse to do evil regardless of who tells us to do it.
How big is your God? Do you believe that God is using the authorities in your life to accomplish His will? While human authorities may fail and disappoint us, let’s continue to place our full confidence in the Lord, Who has authority over all (see Ephesians 1:19–23 and Colossians 1:16–20).

It becomes comforting once we learn to correctly submit to the authorities that God has placed over us. If you have never read the book or seen the movie by Corrie Ten Boom called "The Hiding Place" I highly recommend it. It helps us to learn to trust God 's leading in all things as He is with us in all things.

Grace and Peace,

Ed

http://iblp.org/iblp/discipleship/dailysuccess/