Face To FaithSample

Have you ever been in a head-on collision? Probably not, because if you were, you probably wouldn’t be reading this, because most people don’t survive head-on collisions.

We can have head-on collisions in life, just as we can in driving, and no matter where or
how they occur, they are equally devastating. One area of life where we especially need to watch out for head-on collisions is the area of authority and submission.

Authority and submission go hand in hand. You cannot have one properly functioning without the other also in place, and in the body of Christ, it is built in and based on love and service to God and one another. It is never built upon power, abuse, or control. If you use authority with these last three things then you are heading for a head-on collision.

My hope today is that you have a good example of someone in your life that uses author- ity the way that God uses authority. I hope that you can look at someone you know and see the love, the service, the heart to lift others up, to help others, to bless. Because the reality is that this is the way that Jesus uses His authority. He took His authority and used it to lay down equality with God, empty Himself, and become the sacrifice for our sins so that we could become children of God.

This is how authority works in the kingdom of God, because that’s how the King in the kingdom uses His authority.

And it is especially good to have someone in our lives whom we can imitate. Do you know why? Because imitation is a form of submission. We have to submit to the way they do things in order to be like them, using a choice of our will to place ourselves under their leader- ship and implement their ways into our own lives.

This is how we learn and grow, maturing and becoming more like Christ. This is also how we begin to carry authority ourselves.

Authority and submission really go hand in hand; you cannot have one without the oth- er. If you want to do authority God’s way, then submit to someone who does it well and learn.

Prayer
Father God,
Thank You for using Your authority to serve others! I want to learn to use my authority the same way that You use Yours, so please bring someone into my life from whom I can learn. Amen