Busting loose

Psalms 2:1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of this earth set themselves and the rulers of this earth take counsel together, against the Lord and His Anointed, saying, 3 "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their chords from us."

Last night I was watching footage from Libya, where the people were firing guns in the air celebrating the end of the oppressive ruling regime of Muammar Gaddafi. Decades of tyrannic rule kept an entire nation under his heavy hand. Gaddafi viewed His people as a resource to bring him glory and so he elevated Himself by suppressing the people he ruled over. When you look at the celebration and hear the interviews, the vast majority of Libyans are filled with joy because His powerhold on their lives has been broken. His strong hand that oppressed them has been removed and now the new found hope they have is cause for celebration.

Have you noticed that in its most basic form sin deceives us to think that God is an oppressive ruler. The devil strives to get us to view God in the same way the Libyans view Gaddafi. The devil tries to see God like He is focused on making us miserable and looking out for His sake, while not caring for us. The devil wants us to view the teachings of God as oppressive. Starting in the garden of Eden and continuing to this very moment, and beyond, the devil aims to get you and me to question God's rule over us and His character. If Satan can delude us into thinking that God is harsh, detached and uncaring for our souls, then God's dominion over our lives will appear to be a weight. Clearly the Gospel of Christ demands submission, but it is a joyful submission to a loving God for His glory and our Good. Yes he is our King, but a King who served us with His life so that we can serve Him with ours. He doesn't ask us to do anything that He hasn't first done for us. His mercy and grace are obvious blessings, so being His servant should seem light as he bore the burdens for us already.

When you look at Psalms two above, you can see David's puzzling assessment of the unrighteous. David delighted to serve a holy God and so he can't understand why people would be so eager to vainly try to break His rule and yoke over their lives. David has learned the yoke of God is a balm of healing, not a burden of harm. His observation is that the kings and power brokers of this earth want to break free from God's rule. They don't want Him to rule over them. This is the fundamental war that we as Christ followers must keep our eye on. Why? People are creative in our means of trying to wiggle free of the grasp of God's rule on our lives. A couple of examples:

Benjamin Franklin: he simply made his own bible by cutting out the parts of the true bible he didn't like.
Religion: do these things and God will accept you.
False teachers: "Don't worry about the sin in your life God will accept you any way you are"
Men cynically persecuting Jesus: "you can save others, save yourself"
Other false teachers "the bible is just some opinions of other men that are up for debate."

How do you view Gods' sovereign reign over your life? Do you submit to it in joy because of Christ's work on the Cross?

If not then it will be a weight that you will want to shake loose from. Instead of the Father's freeing love, you will deceptively see God as a restrictive ruler. That is the Gospel - Loving the rule of a Loving Father, made possible through the work of the son and activated by the work of the Spirit.