One of the worst feelings in the world is to get taken advantage of, or to be overlooked. For example, our bosses at work may force us to take up the slack of another lazy worker, they may drop our wages, cut our hours, or criticize our work. Maybe you stayed up three nights in a row working on a project, only to turn it in and have the teacher give you a “C” because he or she was in a bad mood that day. Sometimes we work ourselves to the bone, and never receive one word of appreciation for it! The same is often true in our churches.
Suppose the pastor or eldership made a decision to pave a new expensive parking lot and you think it’s a waste of money. Maybe the worship leader decides to change the songs up. Perhaps the leader of your bible study group decided to study a book outside of the bible that you already know is boring and lack of any real meat. How frustrating! This type of thing is going to happen in all aspects of our lives. We must learn how to swallow our pride, remain quiet, and gladly accept the lot we have been given when there are others over us in authority who make decisions we disagree with. This is honorable in the eyes of the Lord.
“Be humbled before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” – (Jam 4:10)
Remember that no person in the world has power over you except that which God has given them (John 19:11). The Lord put them in their position for a reason, and He has placed you under them for a reason. And He also has chosen not to tell you why He has done this!
When we disagree with what people that have authority over us do, we must remember our main goal. Our highest goal is not to get results, and it is not even to do a great job. Our highest and most worthy goal in all of our endeavors is to honor God. As long as our leaders are not commanding us to disobey God, we would do well to submit to our bosses, governors, pastors, elders, the laws of our countries, the rules of our workplace and the rules of our church.
"Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well." (1Pet 2:13-14)
Your pastor decides to invest in that expensive parking lot, so when someone comes up to you one day after the sermon and says, “Pastor sure gave some good wisdom in that sermon today.” You reply with “Yeah, too bad he doesn’t use that wisdom when he’s dealing with our churches money.” That comment might have felt great to get off your chest, but does that type of comment honor God? Is God glorified by this type of talk? Nobody required that you give your money to this church! So why do you complain that “your” money is being wasted anyhow? Isn’t it God’s money? Don’t worry about what the pastor does with God’s money, just worry about what you do with God’s money.
Your boss decides to hire some fellow and pay him twice what you make. Is that any of your business? It’s tempting to start slacking at work. “If he’s making twice what I do, then I’m going to do half the work.” Man’s nature is to constantly attempt to bring about justice for himself. But God says to let it go and work as if you’re working for Him (Col 3:23). Submit to authority, and be content. There’s no need to get angry and rebel. Be humble and thankful to the Lord that you have a job. Don’t look at what you don’t have, look at what you do have. This is contentment.