This past week I was praying for a couple I felt led to pray for. So I assumed I was supposed to pray the usual, you know, God bless them in their relationship, God I pray they grow to know you together, etc., etc., etc. But God stopped me and said, “Do not pray that they stay together.” This threw me off; I was totally confused. He loves you; she loves you; they love each other; why wouldn’t I pray that they be blessed and stay together?
Well… God, being faithful to answer, says to me.. “They love me but I’m not the ruler of their lives. This relationship is not what I have for either one of them.” I don’t know the details of their relationship.. at all. But that was said to me as clear as day. God is not the ruler of their lives.
During this conversation with God, I thought of many examples of the difference between loving something/someone and allowing something/someone to rule you. My parents love me but I was never their ruler. They never placed me before God or their relationship. It they did, the order would be off. I work at a school and see how dangerous it is when students rule their parents.
We all know at least one sneaker head. I know sneaker heads that go into debt to buy the latest and greatest and allow other commitments to fall. On the other hand, I know people that just love shoes. They buy shoes they can afford, when they can afford them, and enjoy discussing them. There’s a huge difference in going into debt over shoes and loving nice shoes.
So then I began to wonder.. is God the ruler of my life? Are there areas where I say, “God loves me and I love him so it’s okay. He understands that this is hard?” I want God to rule every piece of my life. I want him have lordship and dominion. Like in any other kingdom there are laws that have to followed in order to be ruled by God. This is why many people choose not to allow him to be ruler. But God doesn’t want to be my ruler so he can boss me around and tell me what to do. He wants to have dominion so he can be shown to other people through me. I can’t bring others to know him if I look, act, and talk like those not ruled by him. There are benefits to being ruled by God. Being a part of God’s kingdom comes with protection. As an American citizen, I automatically am protected from things non-citizens are not. I have freedoms non-citizens do not. Its in the same when God is my ruler and I live in his kingdom. There are so many areas of my life that just work out because I have allowed God to rule in them. I want this to expand to every area of my life. I want every benefit there is to God being my ruler. I pray we all see the benefits of being ruled by God this week; that we see the “laws” not as boundaries but as freedom.
God is good y’all!
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