Thursday, October 21, 2010
BIBLE IN A YEAR: Ecclesiastes 4-6 & Galatians 2
THANKFUL SUBMISSION – Submission in Relationships
SCRIPTURE READING
Psalm 139:14; “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
Job 42:1-6 (NIV); “Then Job replied to the LORD: ‘I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.’”
Respect is the foremost rule in most classrooms – respect the teacher and your peers. We all want to be respected and we feel incredibly violated when we are not. This sense of abuse is God-given in that we are made valuable, which is clear all over Scripture and highlighted in Psalm 139. At the same time, there is a larger scope that we often under-look. Job did everything right, yet he neglected to fear God in the midst of His trial. Though we are fearfully and wonderfully made, there is still much that is too fearful and too wonderful for us to comprehend because God is that much greater! He is the One who invented wonderfulness and fearfulness! This is the perspective that we miss and though we will never see things entirely from God’s view, we can use what He reveals of it to help us lay down our rights to respect. If we can harness our need for respect and allow the Spirit to transform it into a great submission to His will, we will find that the sinful nature dies much easier. We need to take our knowledge that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” and instead use it to treat others with submission, as individuals who are just as “fearfully and wonderfully made.”
PRAYER & MEDITATION
1. Spend some time meditating on what you have read today. How has your need for personal rights and freedoms caused you to be prideful and demand certain treatment from others?
2. Think of a few people who you “can’t stand.” Ask the Holy Spirit for insight as to how they are precious to Him and wonderfully made. Pray blessing over them.
3. Ask God to show you what He loves and delights about in you.
