day six: 3 gifts GOVERNMENT

3 gifts GOVERNMENT:

1. George Washington.

I started reading this great book called 7 Men and the Secret of their Greatness by Eric Metaxas. He talks about seven men and how the secret of their greatness (warning: I'm about to give the punchline away if you want to read it) is that they leveraged their power for the sake of others instead of leveraging their power for the sake of themselves.  It's good stuff.

The first man he talks about is George Washington and I was fascinated reading about how a group tried to pressure him into becoming America's first king.  Life would be a little different these days if he'd have gone for that.  We might have our own William and Kate and little baby that everyone obsesses about.  But I digress.  (As usual. :))  

All of this to say, today I am thankful that Jesus chose a man like George Washington (who was riddled with faults--as we all are--I'm not trying to put him on a pedestal) to help build the government of the country I live in. 

Jesus, make me to be more like a person who leverages their power to serve.  Help me to surrender myself completely to Your upside down Kingdom and in that consider myself the least of these instead of the greatest.

2. God is a God of ORDER, not of chaos and confusion.

And so in that, I am thankful that He allows for and ordains governments.  That He knows our need for leadership and organization or else our sin nature runs rampant and we not only destroy ourselves but everyone around us. Even with a functioning government, our sin is wrecking the world, but the laws and authorities God has allowed certainly keeps us in check until Jesus comes back for us.

3. The gift of submission.

One of the biggest battles I have fought in my life is with the four letter word "submission."  On my own, I am AWFUL at submitting.  I think we all probably are, but it certainly seemed to be at the top of my "impossible to conquer" list for a long time.  

Then one day I heard Veronica Greear, the wife of pastor JD Greear, talk about how one of the things that helps her submit is realizing that at the end of it all, the person we are being called to submit to is the one who has to stand before God and be judged.  So for example, if I'm called to submit to Brett and he makes a decision that I'm not wild about, I could argue and kick and scream and refuse to go along with his decision but at the end of it all, I'm not the one who has to stand before God about how I made that decision.  Brett is.  And so I can rest easy knowing that it's not my burden to bear.  

And it's the same with government.  Learning to submit.  (Major caviat being that OBVIOUSLY if the government calls us to do something sinful and clearly against God's Word, then we submit to God FIRST and other authorities second.)