Day One
Last week I mentioned one key to approaching the subject of God’s sovereignty is remembering that God is undivided. In his sovereignty, he cannot be separated from his goodness, wisdom, life, etc…. Although the fear (awe and reverence) of the Lord is something to run after (Psalm 25:14), we have no need to fear his lordship. He is not like man, there is no concern that his leadership will ever become tainted or distorted. He is in control, but he is not controlling. His lordship is perfect and trustworthy. Another key, I would propose, to approaching God’s sovereignty is to remember that God wants to be in relationship with us. We were extended an invitation to be in community with him at creation. That invitation has not been and never will be rescinded. As a matter of fact, God has gone through great lengths to buy us back from sin and death.
Throughout scripture we see God’s lordship revealed through his servants. He reveals himself as God, I Am, LORD (Yahweh, Jehovah), but there is a necessary acknowledgement from us, his creation, to reveal him as our Lord (Adonai). We reveal God as master when we say, “LORD (Jehovah), you are Lord (Adonai) in my life.” That’s the beginning of the relationship.
Kay Author writes in her study Lord, I Want to Know You, “Lord is more than a word; it indicates relationship. The lordship of God means His total possession of me and my total submission to Him as Lord and Master.”
There are many things that like to “call” themselves lord, or that would jump as the chance to be the lord of our lives—fear, money, friends, religion, dreams, ideologies. (What would you add to the list? What screams at you, harassing you for the reigns?) If fear lords our life, we will be tormented. But if the LORD (Jehovah) is Lord (Adonai) of our life, he drives out fear (1 John 4:18). If money lords our life, we open ourselves up to all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). But if the LORD (Jehovah) is Lord (Adonai) of our life, we have divine weapons to destroy strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4). One last example, if religion lords our life, we walk in condemnation under the law. But if the LORD (Jehovah) is Lord (Adonai) of our life, we are set free and abiding in Christ (Romans 8, all of it).
When we submit to God’s lordship as servants, his reign, his sovereignty takes effect in our lives. And it is good and trustworthy! Remember? He can’t be separated from himself. Nothing can change the fact that God is God and Creator. Even if we don’t believe it and confess it, it doesn’t change who he is. The power in acknowledging his lordship and submitting to it, is working in agreement with him (all that he is)—like two pedals on a bicycle.* God’s sovereignty doesn’t mean it’s all him. We have a part, we are created with purpose. David writes, “The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him and he makes known to them his covenant (Psalm 25:14). Communion with us is the Father’s heartbeat. He created us with the ability to walk and talk with him, and vice versa.
This week as you read the daily scriptures, consider the relational aspects of God’s Lordship. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal areas that other lords have control, and to teach us how to call him Lord.
*acknowledgements – Bart Brookins
DAILY SCRIPTURES
Day Two
Luke 6:46-49
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
Matthew 6:24
“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.
1 Corinthians 12:3
…no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
Day Three
Galatians 4:1-4
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles[b] of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Day Four
Psalm 37:3-6
Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.
Day Five
John 15: 4- 8
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
Day Six
John 15: 12-17
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
Day Seven
Selah
Brave Sparrow 