Real rulers or slaves?
Verse for Today: Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Ecclesiastes 10:7 – I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes go on foot like slaves.
God created man to be a ruler of all that was around him and within him. He was to subdue the environment and seasons along with all creatures, and his own emotions, feelings and thoughts. But when man became a slave to sin and Satan, he lost his privilege and ability to rule over all that has been entrusted with him by God. He also lost his control over his own emotions, feelings and thoughts. So today man is controlled by the external environment and he has been taking efforts to adjust his life as a response to the pressure the environment, his thought life and emotions try to puts on him and thus to control his behavior and attitude. Solomon illustrates this phenomenon as a walk where the real slaves now behave like rulers and ride on horses and chariots while the real ruler is walking on foot like slaves. But God doesn’t want man to be a slave to his external environment or his own thought life. God wants to give man a release from it all and make him a ruler again. This is possible when we surrender our lives to God and accept the freedom that He offers us through Jesus Christ. When we are thus free from the punishment and power of sin, we do not need to live like slaves to our external environment and our thought life as slaves to anxiety, anger, envy, competition, discouragement, loneliness and the like. In Jesus we can have victory over all of these emotions when we are filled with His Spirit. In Jesus, we no longer need to live as slaves to our external environment by being anxious about possessions, positions, prestige and future prospects. We can find victory over the cravings that the natural man has and live to rule over our minds with the help of the Spirit of God. When we thus become rulers of our emotions, we will have joyful and contended lives. When we thus live in subjection to Jesus and His Spirit, we are unshackled from our external environment and our own emotions. This is the path to victorious Christian living which we enjoy as we walk with the Lord Jesus on a daily basis.
Dear friend, are you a ruler over or a slave to your external environment and your own emotions and thought life? Is your environment putting pressure on you and making you respond to it as if you are its slave? But if Jesus Christ controls your life and emotions, you need not dance according to the tunes played by your environment, but behave and respond according to the enabling of the Spirit of God. Your environment might play around with you through shortages, losses, failures, unexpected changes in scenarios, competition, deprivation, defeat, isolation, persecution, oppression, ill-treatment and cruelty. It wants you to respond in the same manner and thus become its slave. But with the help of the Spirit of God, you can respond with grace and peace. With Jesus, you can rise above the level of your environment and bring your emotions under the control of the Spirit of God. Thus you can become a ruler over all that is around you and live above their level. Today Jesus is inviting you to live like a king and be a blessing to others. He will give you the strength and power to rise above your external or internal environment. The Spirit will strengthen you to subdue your emotions so that you would not respond negatively. The Spirit of Jesus will help you to live positively like a prince with Jesus. This was how Jacob lived in times of adversity. Joseph had this attitude to life and environment while he was in the pit and the dungeon and also when he became the Prime Minister of Egypt. Daniel and the three Jewish youth lived to be rulers and not slaves to their environment. Paul and Peter had the same attitude while in prison and John demonstrated such an approach while alone in Patmos. Today you and I have the privilege to live as rulers and not as slaves to our emotions and our external environment. This is the joyful life that Jesus invites us to have today in spite of the discouraging scenarios that we might be going through.
Philippians 4:13 – I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.
Thought for Today
Jesus the King became like a servant in order to make us rulers and to be seated in heavenly places like princes and princesses.
Jesus the King became like a servant in order to make us rulers and to be seated in heavenly places like princes and princesses.
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