Refill Devotional, Week 7 Day 5: “Authority”

Authority

Hebrews 13:17 “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

Recently a young woman asked me to mentor her. Our first meeting, I felt led to challenge her in an area of discontentment in her life. I gave her an assignment and deadline. I wasn’t sure how this young woman was going to respond. After all, I did point out a potential blind spot which is never fun to hear. To my surprise, after the meeting was over, she thanked me profusely. She said that she prayed before our meeting that I would challenge her and that God would use me to show her areas to improve.

In a culture that avoids the concept of authority, submission and correction, I was impressed to see a young woman who sought it out. She genuinely wants to grow and understands that God uses authority in her life to help her get there.

At our next meeting, she was beaming. She had done her assignment and was experiencing freedom and peace in an area that had been a constant struggle. Many times we may feel stuck or confused in an area of our life. In those times, we can reach our hand up to those mentors and leaders in our lives. They can see blind spots, offer a different perspective and maybe bring correction. When you are exercising, you aren’t changing if you aren’t being challenged. It is the same in life. When we want to see change, sometimes we need to be challenged…and sometimes we need to seek that challenge out.

Melissa Miller