Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day ( Monday 10/20/08)

First I want to apologize to my beautiful God daughter in the last devotional I said I had 2 children by birth and 2 by choice, well I do have 3 by choice and she is one that I have chose to love as my own since she was 13 years old!

God Rules By Love Not By Force, How Do You Rule?

Romans 5:21 (New Living Translation)
21 So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I have learned a lot from being a parent, a sister, a daughter, a wife and a person, but none as much as the being a parent. As I have been blessed to raise children, and help raise others and guide and direct others and be a friend to others, I have noticed something that directly affects the response of those who I have ruled over or have interaction with, it is the way I have ruled. There are several ways that one can be enabled to rule, one way is by legitimate power, meaning that the power you possess is yours by right of the position you hold, like a parent. There is coercive power, that is you possess the ability to inflict pain or punishment on people and that is the power that you have over them. Then there is a reward power that is power through the perception that you have the ability to give positive consequences or take away negative ones. There is also expert power which you have indirect power because you possess expertise in a particular area, or task. There is referent power which is the power you possess by and through whom you are associated with. That is the power we have through Christ Jesus. It far exceeds and is far more beneficial than any other source of power named.

I noticed in my pursuit to rear and train my children that often it was the calm and rational me that would get the results needed for conformity then the mom that yelled and screamed, threaten, lacked understanding and patience. Although I must admit there were times that method was needed, but by far, open communication and a cool and loving persona prevailed over threats, distance and lacking patience. When we are under pressure and we are already going through things, what if God yelled, screamed, threatened or judged us, what do you think would happen? Often when pressure is applied to an already fragile, and confusing situation that kind of pressure only worsens the persons behavior or response. We then end up yielding the response we did not want instead of the one we wanted. My grandma use to say you can get more bees with honey then with vinegar. It is that soft answer and the willingness to be quiet and pray, that will often bring us and the other person into God's will. To sow patience, long suffering, care, temperance and love into those around us, rather than a stiff dose of payback or intolerance, is what God desires ( remember that love your neighbor, thing I think God meant that). If God treated us the way we treat people, most of us would be in a world of hurt and trouble, and some of us not among the living. Often if God repayed us the way repay, or treat people we would be destitute, or our reputations ruined and many of us would cease to exist. Thank God for Him ruling with Grace and love.

But why does that grace exist for us. In any case God is giving us an opportunity to seek his face and get right before him and get it right with those we have hurt, mistreated or dealt harshly with. But often we think because we ask for forgiveness, we think that is where it ends. In the Bible it talks about leaving our gift at the alter and making peace or making it right. God encourages us to do what is right by one another, to love the unlovable ones and to treat those who even treat us badly with kindness and to pray for those who use us. For most of us we can not imagine that, but it is an act of submission, and act of humility. It takes putting our will under the blood and under the shadow of the almighty. It also takes loving God more than we love us, and desiring to preserve our status and relationship with Him more than preserving our own life as we know it.

Do you rule with an iron fist or a loving heart. Do you value God more than yourself? Can you love, forgive and rule with the referent power the power that is fuel by the Holy Spirit and ordained by God, the choice is ours, but know that as we give it and in the way we give it shall one day return unto you again! Realize we are picking our own brand of justice.