Ephesians 6:7 - Going vertical

-’...slaving with good will as to the Lord and not to people...’

-What if Jesus asked you to do something?  Christ-follower, if the Lord of heaven and Savior of your soul appeared to you and asked you to do something, even something difficult or daunting, would you not readily and gladly do it?  With all your heart?  And tho' it were a cross I must bear, surely His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11.30).  This then is the perspective I must bring to all I am asked to do by my God-ordained superiors in this life, that it is not in fact they who are doing the asking, but rather it is Christ Himself.  He is doing the asking, the Lord.  THE Lord.  Not some penny-ante operator.  He has all authority and power in heaven and earth.  That, and He is good, oh so good, breathtakingly so.  And He has good plans, plans to do good to us and our families and to the nations.  And as we come to know Him in this light, it is natural for us to want to do whatever He asks of us, readily, heartily.  He is our Master.  He is Who we serve.  He is Who we are ultimately serving when we submit to our authorities on earth and to one another.  Which means we can serve with good will.  The word literally means, ‘good mind’.  It all begins with our mind.  This is where we make the switch, our mindset shifts from serving on the horizontal level and goes vertical.  In our mind, now we are serving the King of heaven in whatever we do.

-So that supervisor who is harsh and unreasonable?  Throw that mental switch and shift to vertical.  Don’t focus on them.  Fix your eyes on Jesus.  Do what you are being asked to do as if Jesus is the One doing the asking.  That husband or parent who is so flawed?  Jesus.  That teacher who is making your life miserable?  Jesus.  Of course the caveat here is that we are doing things which fall under the category of what God wants.  We are not obeying authority which is asking us to do that of which the Lord does not approve.  But within that field of play, everything is fair game.  Do it for Jesus, as unto Him, and He’ll take care of the rest.  He’s got your back.  He’s got this.