Children’s Institute Series PART 2: AUTHORITY (Inspired by the IBLP Children’s Institute Curriculum)

      Who guides your life? Who decides your path? To whom does your life belong? The obvious answer to these questions that every Christian would give is “God.” But the question that follows would be: Are you living your life as though God were in supreme authority? It is very easy to start living for ourselves and be mostly concerned about our interests and benefits. Is God merely an object of our religion that we just worship every Sunday, or is He the focus of our lifestyles Whose purposes and plans we conform our lives to?

      Matthew 6:24 says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” From this verse, we can draw the implication that everyone has a master. Everyone has something or someone they live their lives for. So the question is, who or what is your master? Who or what is the focus of your life? This is an important question to answer because it affects the way we live. If we live for money, that is our master, and the result would be materialism and, possibly, greed. If our master is popularity, then the result would be selfishness and a likely inauthenticity in our lifestyles as we try to project an image that people are attracted to. If we place ourselves as the master of our own lives, then every decision and every action will be done with our best interest in mind, and we may end up elevating man to the level of supremacy over everything. Indeed, this is the first temptation in the history of mankind, that man can take the place of God and determine his own life. And that is when humankind began its moral deterioration. But if we make God the master of our lives, then we will seek His kingdom, His Word, and His will, and He, being the best master we could place ourselves under, would care for us for He knows our needs and would provide for them (Philippians 4:19).

      Brother Yun once said, “If you want to be a person whom God uses, it is vital for you to have a deep revelation of God’s sovereignty and authority.” You see, in order for God to use us, we would have to give Him the control over our lives. Most of us want to be used by God, but not as many are willing to surrender every single part of their lives to Him. Is our faith based on the truth about God, or on our feelings about God?

      So what does it mean to make God our master and to give our whole life to Him? If God is our master, we are His servants. And just as servants do the work and will of their master, so do we do the work and will of our Lord. We will seek His approval and His will for us. To give our whole life to Him would be to make Him the ultimate authority in every aspect of life. From our decisions concerning money to entertainment and music and friends, everything we do would have to be pleasing to God. The Bible even uses the word “slave,” which takes it to another level, where we are actually humble workers and everything we have belongs to the Master. But the great thing is that, unlike what many people think about the life of a servant, we would be joyful in our servanthood, because of the grace and peace of God and our trust in His goodness. And though trials will come our way, we will stand in our faith because of our confidence in the character of God.

      So let this be a continuous challenge for us: to make God the highest authority and ruler of our lives.

Blessings,
Nathanael Chong