31 Mar He Chose to Respect Earthly Authorities (Forty Days with Jesus – Day 37, Mar 31)
Thought for the Day: I need to respect earthly authorities and worship God!
What’s at your center? What do you allow to define you? Take a few moments to consider what you allow to be the non-negotiable(s) in your life. A particular political ideology? Relationships, careers, or titles? If we take time to honestly reflect, we may find that we live lives worshipping something other than God. Of course, it is highly unlikely that any of us would ever do this intentionally. However, it is easy to find ourselves worshipping things we should simply respect.
This is not a new societal issue. Two thousand years ago, Jesus saw first-hand that the people were confusing respect with worship. Hoping to catch Jesus messing up, the Jewish religious leaders sent a group to ask Him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” However, Jesus saw through the question. Living for God is not about disrespecting earthly authorities (whether we personally like them or not). And – living under earthly authorities does not require us to worship anyone or anything other than God. Therefore, we must “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
It is easy to let the wrong things become our center. We are not called to worship anyone or anything other than God. Period. But, Christians are to show respect, the rightful regard for something. Much of the chaos and division in our society would be solved if more Christians stepped up and followed the example of Jesus. He chose to respect earthly authorities and worship God!
Reflect & Pray – Am I worshipping anything other than God today? Is there anything I am failing to give the proper level of respect to? God, thank you for the example of Jesus! Please grant me the wisdom to know the difference between respect and worship!
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