Yielding Rights

Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. -Philippians 2:5-8


I have been listening to a few sermons by Roger Hershey the past couple days and I encourage you to check him out on iTunes podcasts because he has some great wisdom. I listened to his sermon on yielding rights and can completely relate to his words as I think about some of the expectations I have of having a 'right' to certain knowledge and things.


Verse 5 tells us that we should have an attitude of Jesus who emptied Himself. Jesus took on the role of a bond-servant, a slave, and laid aside His rights. Jesus had the right to the whole kingdom of God but laid that right down to die on the cross and purchase our salvation. Because God bought us with the price of Christ's precious blood, we are owned by Him. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, "or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body." I am not my own and I have been purchased to be saved from sin, death, and hell. I have been bought to be set free from slavery to sin and to satan. God is our new master and He is the only one who owns every right of our lives. When we put our faith in Jesus, we die with him on the cross. We die to our flesh, our dreams, our desires, our sin. I am united with Christ in order to be raised from the death of who I was and to be made into the perfection that God created me to be in Him.


I think about all the rights that I keep holding onto and realize that holding on to rights only causes more pain and disappointment because holding onto rights is failing to truly trust in God's plan and faithfulness. I catch myself thinking that I have the right to not struggle financially, I have the right to the knowledge to understand what God is doing in my life, I have the right to good health, I have the right to have people like me, I have the right to be given a dating relationship, I have the right to a future family, I have the right to do what I want with the time I am given in my day, I have the right to understand where others are coming from, I have the right to forgive on my timeline, I have the right to be admired, I have the right to be respected and be recognized, I have the right to be comfortable, I have the right to have convenience, I have the right to be treated fairly, I have the right to be understood, I have the right to have approval of family, I have the right to a long life, I have the right to follow my dreams, and I have the right to never suffer. Why on earth do I think that I can have these rights? There is nothing that says I am privileged with rights when I started following the Lord. In fact, I should have the mindset of the complete opposite. If my life is truly all about living a life like Christ's, the only right I should think I have is to have no rights at all. Why do we think we have the right to constantly experience love from others and blessings of comfort and desires when Christ was hated and went through unbearable physical pain to be able to take the punishment of my wrong-doing. Christ was disrespected in every way possible but yet we put ourselves on pedestals above Christ when we think that we deserve and have the right to things and experiences. When the rights that we think we deserve to keep are violated we can experience bitterness, frustration, and disappointment. This stings my heart because the past couple weeks I have been battling with the Lord about being frustrated with why He placed situations in my life that caused emotional confusion that lead to feeling teased and disappointed. I felt that I had the right to understand God's purpose and plan at any given moment. This is so untrue. The more I hung onto thinking I had the right to understanding the more disappointment I was creating for myself. God never promised me understanding to His plan and He has never promised that I would never be confused. In fact, God does promise trials for the purpose of testing our faith in His character. God does promise suffering. We don't follow Jesus because He makes everything good. We follow Jesus because He is worthy. He is worthy of my life. He is worthy of my heartache, worthy of my pain, worthy of confusion, worthy of my disappointment because He does promise in Romans 8:16-17 that: "The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him." We will share glory with Jesus one day. What an amazing reward for following Christ through every trial and suffering with perseverance. Just like anyone else following Christ, I have to surrender everything. Each time I am facing disappointment I need to yield my rights to God over and over and over again. God is sovereign and I cannot pick and choose which characteristics of God I want to believe in and trust and which ones I do not. I need to be brought back to Luke 9:23 everyday which says, "And He was saying to them all, 'if anyone wishes to comes after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me.'"


We have the choice to demand our rights or yield our rights. We have to make that decision over and over again as we walk through life. If we live a life of demanding our rights we risk living a life of bitterness, disappointment, anger, and frustration because life is not going to our way most of the time. If we live a yielded life then whatever God brings we will joyfully accept it because we will trust that God knows what is best.