October 19

Say the Word 

  

“I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.”  ––Jesus (John 5:30, NLT)

There is something about understanding authority that assures God when He approves His representatives. His willingness to advance His authority through a man depends on the man’s willingness to accept His authority. It’s not so much confidence in oneself as in God’s ability to work through the man—and He believes it.

Here’s a great contrast between a man who fully understands God’s authority, and one who doesn’t. The Apostle Paul tells us:

But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, “I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.” ––Acts 13:22

The transactional phrase is “everything I want him to do.” Saul was removed because he obeyed God selectively, when it was convenient. Saul got into the bad habit of “mostly obeying,” but David demonstrated that he understood God’s overriding authority. Saul was ineffective because he hadn’t surrendered. David was operating out of “want to” and Saul still hadn’t settled the fact that it is all about God’s authority, not his own. 

Asa, who was a descendant of David, was a good king, but his effectiveness in battle was compromised because he could not surrender full control of his life to God’s authority. There was a trust issue in play. When God told him to go for it, he did, but his eyes drifted off of God and onto the enemy. His faith was replaced by fear, and fear moved him to hire mercenaries to help him win in his battles. God was offended, and Asa stopped winning.

Whereas most of us can’t relate to Saul, and we strive to have a heart after God like David, we can probably relate most with Asa: A good man with good intentions who sometimes took his eye off the ball. For all of us, then, the goal is to avoid being Saul, move past being Asa, and embrace the type of reverence and respect David had for God’s authority.

Father, thank You for reminding me again, it’s not all about me but it’s all about You. 

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See 2 Chronicles 16ff.