Authority and Obedience

 There are a lot of things that can be said, have been said, and are being said about the world in which we live.  There are a lot of ways to consider and look at how people are thinking and what ideas are important for the church in the midst of a world like ours.  I think sometimes it is good to get back to the basics.  There are two concepts that are really two sides of the same concept that are critical for us to understand.  

The first side of the coin is authority.  God has authority over our lives.  He has this authority for a number of reasons.  He created us - therefore He has the right to do with us as He pleases.  His character - his goodness and grace and justice and holiness and the all the rest earn Him our respect and confirm His authority.  He demands it - He calls us to recognize who He is and acknowledge Him as the one in charge.  God is our authority. 

The second side of the coin is obedience.  This is the demanded response of the creation to the authority of God.  Creation is to obey God.  God's character demands our obedience.  His law demands our obedience.  We obey God because we recognize that God is the authority and we are to follow Him.  

The trouble in our world is that we have made ourselves the authority.  This totally upends the plan and purposes of God in our lives.  We were made to obey, not to be in charge.  And so when we do what we want to do we are missing the point of what we were created for.  We need to bring back these two concepts in our every day lives.  We need to recognize the authority of God and we need to obey this God who created us.

Patience

 I must confess that I am not very good at patience.  I do not really know anyone who is.  Some are of course better than others - people who are more patient in certain areas, but I think most people I have met have at least one area where we want things now.  One of the most common areas where people find it hard to have patience with is when something goes wrong with our health and we have to wait for test results.  A friend of mine recently went through this.  A test on Friday and then no results until the middle of the following week.  I recently went through this multiple times during a summer fight with cancer and chemo.  And waiting under stress is a terrible feeling.  

And yet patience is more than a virtue, it is a fruit of the Spirit of God.  So as we grow in Christ, God is going to cultivate this quality in us.  And unfortunately the only way it seems to grow in patience is to have it tested.  Not a fun experience.  But when it is being tested, we have the ability to properly focus and praise God for the fact that He is growing us into the likeness of His Son!  And so take heart and have patience.  God is at work in you for your good and His glory!