Romans 13:1-2
“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.”
INSIGHT
-We observe that disobedience and disrespect to the authorities is a cause for judgement. 1 Peter 2:13-14 reveals that, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.” The Lord has given the authorities power to either punish or reward each one according to the laws of the land. Jesus demonstrated submission to the authorities through His life. When He was arrested, He was first taken to Caiaphas the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled (Matthew 26:57), then to Pilate, to Herod and back to Pilate, but He submit. Having much greater authority and power, He was focused on His mission and love for mankind. When Pilate boasted that he had the power to either set Jesus free or crucify Him, Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of a greater sin” (John 19:11). Jesus could not defile His word but submitted to the authorities as He instructs us. We are called to submit to the authorities that rule the nations, government officers, authorities at home, in the work place, churches and other areas. When we submit, we gain access to promotion, protection, provision, peace and God’s blessings.
PRAYER
Almighty and Everlasting Father, we come before You this morning thanking You for everything You have done unto us. Thank You for the gift of life and everything that You have done unto us. Thank You for we have began this new week in perfect peace. Heal all those who are sick in hospital and at home, and among our family members and friends merciful Father. Comfort all those who are mourning the loss of their loved ones and grant them peace. Be with all who are jobless and open new opportunities for them. Remember all those who are unmarried, separated and divorced and elevate them to the next level in loving unions. Be with all the street families and children living in the street, that You may give them better lives according to their books in heaven. We submit our hearts to You Jesus, heal all our wounds. We submit all our prayers to You loving Savior, answer them and all our hearts desires according to Your will. Lord You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty. Fill our hearts with humility that we may always submit to the authorities as You instruct us. Forgive us Jesus for the many times we have gone against the authorities and thus gone against You. Forgive us all our sins and cover us with Your precious blood. Align us and all those in political positions to Your will. Help us to submit to You according to Your will. All glory, honor, power, authority and victory belongs to You Jesus, now and forever. Amen
1 Peter 5:5-6
“In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”
INSIGHT
-Apostle Peter exhorts the youth to submit to the elders. Bearing humility which preserves with grace and exultation from the Lord. To exhibit humility through learning and gaining wisdom from elders. In order to ensure submission and respect is gained, the elders are also exhorted to shepherd the sheep well and watching over them, not by dishonest gains but eagerly serving as the Lord wills. Humility thus preserves peace and order in all Christian churches and societies but pride causes stagnation and eventually down fall. When God gives grace to be humble, His favour, wisdom, faith, holiness and love is imparted upon His children and lifts them up.
PRAYER
Our Lord and our God, our Savior and Almighty Father, we come before You today with humility in our hearts. We thank You for Your goodness and love upon our lives. You are the same yesterday, today and forever, thank You for the peace that we enjoy each day. Fill us Holy Spirit with humility that we may submit to our elders and to You. Help all the elders to shepherd Your flock with love according to Your will. Forgive us all our sins Jesus and deliver us from all forms of pride. Help us to be completely humble, gentle and patient, bearing one another in love. We are Your chosen people Lord, holy and dearly loved by You, clothe us with Your compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; we humbly implore You. Accelerate us Lord in all areas of our lives; according to Your will. We thank You and glorify Your holy name. Amen
Ephesians 5:21-25
“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”
INSIGHT
-Marriage is a divine institution instituted and headed by Christ just like the holy communion. Christian marriages have certain commitments, obligations and duties which are symbolic. The roles which God has given to a Christian husband and his wife are not culturally derived, nor are they arbitrarily based. They are intended to symbolize and represent a greater, more fundamental reality. While marriage is temporal, the realities which it symbolizes are eternal. In Ephesians 5:31-32, Apostle Paul acknowledges that marriage is a mystery saying, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” These fundamental realities underlie and explain the attitudes and conduct of a man and his wife in marriage is the relationship of Jesus Christ to His church. Submission is a way of showing respect to the husband and a way of displaying love to the wife. Apostle Paul goes on to solve the puzzle through 1 Corinthians 7:4-5 saying that, “The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control”. These obligations and commitments are geared towards bringing forth, peace, unity, respect and love in a marriage union and expose it to longevity, when Christ is at the center.
PRAYER
Dear heavenly Father we come before You to thank You for all You have done and continue to do in our lives. We thank You for instituting the marriage institution saying that, It is not good that a man should be alone, I will make him a helper suitable for him. We thank You for every married couple all over the world. Strengthen their bonds in unity with codes of love that cannot be broken. Strengthen every married couple to submit unto one another as to You Jesus Christ. We thank You Abba Father for all those who are single and wait on You for their marriage partners. May You hear all their prayers and fulfil Your promises in their lives at the appointed time. We humbly ask You to reunite all those who have been separated or divorced or make a better way for them according to Your will. Marriage belongs to You Jesus, take over all marriages in the world. Fill the marriage couples with wisdom and understanding to Your word. Intervene in all marriages that are fighting and make a way for them. Make a way Jesus for all abandoned children that they may progress in life according to Your divine purposes. Those who are waiting on You for children, make a way for them like You did for Sarah. Incase of financial difficulties, provide for them like You provided for the widow of Zarephath and her son. Incase of spiritual maturity, be the only Door to eternal life, and grant each member of our families the gift of salvation. Forgive us all our sins and cover us with Your precious blood Jesus. Only You are able to heal all our wounds and bring sanity to our homes. Only You are our Lord and Savior, our Provider, Sustainer, Protector and Shield. We put all our hope and trust in You. Amen
Ephesians 6:1-4
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother —which is the first commandment with a promise— so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth. Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord”.
INSIGHT
-Submission to our parents is an instruction from the Lord for they have been given such authority to discipline by Him. Proverbs 1:8 reveals that, “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching”. Children have been tasked to be obedient to their parents for this is pleasing to the Lord. This not only means that children have the responsibility to obey, but parents have the responsibility to teach their children obedience; with patience. This is one of the most important duties for a parent that causes transformation and learning among the children. Without teaching their is no correction, without correction their is no learning. Such obedience originates from the ten commandments where God instructed us saying, “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12). Submission to parents comes with a promise of long life here on earth, which was God’s design from the beginning.
PRAYER
Almighty Heavenly Father, we come before Your holy presence today, we thank You for all You have done for us and all You have given us. Thank You for Your love and mercies that we have seen ever present in our lives. Thank You Lord. Today we commit ourselves unto You, may You forgive us and wash us with Your precious blood from all the sins we have done, said and thought. We thank You for giving us guardians and parents. We ask that You may forgive us where we have not honored, obeyed and respected our parents as well as all the authorities You have put above us. O Lord, may You teach us to honor, obey and respect our parents as You have commanded. Give us wisdom, peace and long life here on earth according to Your will. Be with the orphans and provide for all their needs loving Father. May You also remember those among us who lack food, shelter, clothing, school fees and every other need, that You may provide for all their needs. Be will all the teenagers who go astray with drug addiction, sexual immorality and other fleshly lusts that Your may align them to Your will. We remember all the sick and we pray that You may heal them for You are God that healeth us. We thank You and honor You for You are a great and mighty God, worthy of all praise and honor. We pray this in Jesus Mighty Name, Amen. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 12:7-11
“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”
INSIGHT
-The experience of discipline may be bitter initially but the fruits; sweet. It is through discipline that we know that we are legitimate sons and daughters of God. Proverbs 3:11-12, says that, my son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, for God disciplines the ones He loves. God also instructed the Israelites saying, “Do not be stiff-necked, as your ancestors were; submit to the Lord. Come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever. Serve the Lord your God, so that his fierce anger will turn away from you. If you return to the Lord, then your fellow Israelites and your children will be shown compassion by their captors and will return to this land, for the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him” (2 Chronicles 30:8-9). It is then through discipline first, of human fathers, mothers and guardians who are put under our care that we get to learn, and through the chastening of the Lord that we grow in faith and wisdom. We are called to submit to God, our heavenly Father that we may share in His holiness, and enjoy His righteousness and peace.
SUMMARY
For grapes to produce wine, they have to go through processing. There are five basic stages or steps to making wine from grapes: harvesting, crushing and pressing, fermentation, clarification, and then aging and bottling. Sometimes God allows us to go through hard training so that we may become sweet like refined wine. Without crushing grapes you can never produce wine. Jesus was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities and the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53;5). Jesus submitted to the authorities before His crucifixion. He died for our sins and by His blood we have received redemption, healing and victory over all things. Like Jesus, we are called to submit to His authority through submission to His divine will. Romans 8:7 says that, “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.” Likewise, James 4:7 tells us, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Through humility and the fear of the Lord do we submit to His authority. God has also placed people in positions of power and calls us to submit to them, lest we bring forth judgement upon ourselves. These authorities may include:- leaders in government, work place, church etc. We are also called to submit to our elders who include; those who are advanced in age and the church elders. God also calls us to submit to our parents so that we may have long life here on earth. He also reminds; wives to submit to their husbands through respect and husbands through love, as this is pleasing to Him. Ultimately, let us submit to God for He is our Father and He will lead us in His wisdom and grace, to do all things according to His will. He has made us a new creation and given us His Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. He reminds us in Mark 2:22 that, “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.” Let us then accept to follow after love and do the will of God through submission, and He will sustain us through His grace.
PRAYER
I love You Lord, my Strength, my Rock, my Fortress and Deliverer. My Rock, my Shield, my Stronghold and the horn of my salvation. I put all my trust in You. Your law Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. Your statutes are trustworthy, making wise the simple. Your precepts are right, giving joy to the heart. Your commands are radiant, giving light to the eyes. Your decrees are firm and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold. They are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. They are sweeter than wine, than wine from crashed grapes. Teach us to do You will Lord. Train our hearts in Your wisdom. Wash our hearts and souls with Your precious blood dear Jesus, and forgive us for the many times we have failed to submit to You. Train our hearts with humility and wisdom that we may submit to You. Teach us to walk work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Teach us to walk in the light of Your salvation. Teach us to hold fast our faith in You only Lord. Lord You give victory to Your anointed, You answer us from Your heavenly sanctuary with victorious power of Your right hand. Grant all our prayer requests and hearts desires dear Father. Fill us with Your wise counsel Holy Spirit that we may never depart from the path of truth. Instill in us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control. All glory, honor, authority, strength, riches, honor and power belongs to You Jesus, now and forever. Amen