A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
Son John had a brand new moped, and this middle-aged mother thought I’d take it for a spin around the church parking lot behind our home. I had a wonderful time, for a while, pretending like I was a teenager again, zooming around the corners.
But a man in a truck pulled up into the parking lot. He was a deacon in our church. He stopped the truck, pulled out a camera, and started to take my picture, so I jumped down before he could.
“No, get back on the bike. I want to take a picture of you riding.”
“No,” I answered.
“But I’m a man, and the Bible says women are supposed to obey men.”
“No,” I said stubbornly. “God told me to obey my husband, not every man.”
And thank God that’s true. A wife is told to follow her husband’s leadership, not just any man who claims authority. And besides, I got to choose the man I would marry and obey, and I was content under his leadership.
But I had had to learn obedience to authority in a difficult way. The summer I was fourteen, I worked in my father’s publishing company during the week and four hours on Saturday. One Saturday my father’s secretary told me there was so much work I’d have to work all day.
“I can’t. Our young people’s group is having a picnic, and I’m supposed to bring the drinks.”
“No. You must work.”
“Can I at least call someone to take my place?”
“No. Now get busy.”
“No,” I answered.
“But I’m a man, and the Bible says women are supposed to obey men.”
“No,” I said stubbornly. “God told me to obey my husband, not every man.”
And thank God that’s true. A wife is told to follow her husband’s leadership, not just any man who claims authority. And besides, I got to choose the man I would marry and obey, and I was content under his leadership.
But I had had to learn obedience to authority in a difficult way. The summer I was fourteen, I worked in my father’s publishing company during the week and four hours on Saturday. One Saturday my father’s secretary told me there was so much work I’d have to work all day.
“I can’t. Our young people’s group is having a picnic, and I’m supposed to bring the drinks.”
“No. You must work.”
“Can I at least call someone to take my place?”
“No. Now get busy.”
That night I complained to my father. I could see on his face that he felt I hasd been mistreated and deeply regretted what he had to tell me. “Yes, Libby, you have to do what she tells you to do.” I think he may have repremanded the secretary, for it never happened again. But I learned an important lesson that day. The one under authority obeys, whether she agrees with the decision or not.
It is not demeaning to be under authority; it is not a diminishing of your personhood to obey your boss, your parent, your supervisor, the policeman on the corner. Rather, the employee, the obedient person, is as valuable in God’s sight as is one in authority! God has given each of us exactly the skills, the emotional fortitude, the talents He designed us for, to do the tasks He wants us to do. That humility demands respect and honor.
The night before Jesus died on the cross, He so dreaded it, He knelt and prayed so earnestly, the Bible tells us, it was as if He sweat great drops of blood. What was His prayer?
“Father, if You are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from Me.
Yet I want Your will to be done, Not mine. (Luke 22:43 nlt)
“Father, if You are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from Me.
Yet I want Your will to be done, Not mine. (Luke 22:43 nlt)
The Lord Jesus, the eternal God Himself, who created the stars and heaven and earth, still prayed, “Your will be done, not Mine.” God’s will was etched on His heart! What humility of heart He had! And that is the attitude He wants us to have as we respond to the God-appointed authorities in our lives. “Your will, not mine.”
Psalm 40:7.8, (nkjv) written long before Jesus actually came to earth to die for our sins, quotes Him as saying,
“Look, I have come. As is written about Me in the Scriptures:
I take joy in doing Your will, my God,
for Your instructions are written on my heart.”
May God help us to have the humble, committed acquiescence to His will that Jesus had.