This is the name of God that speaks of God’s total possession over all that is created. God’s possession of me. Adonai "signifies ownership or mastership and indicates "the truth that God is the owner of each member of the human family, and that He consequently claims the unrestricted obedience of all." 1
The name Adonai speaks of God as Lord and Master over my life. When Isaiah heard his Master’s voice he responded to His voice by saying "Here I am. Send me!" (Is 6:8)
If God is Lord and Master over my life then I will understand that I am His servant. I am a servant worthy to serve my God, my Master.
If God is Lord then I will lay down my life to serve Him and whatever He calls me to do. I will count it a privilege, an honor to serve.
If God is Lord and Master over all my life then I can be confident that whatever He calls me to do he will equip me to carry it out.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Eph 2:10
Many find it difficult to surrender themselves to Adonai. To make Him Lord over our lives would require us to give up what control we think we might have. To give up a life of self-sufficiency.
Just this week as I have been studying what it means to be transformed by the gospel and looking at the elder son in Luke 15 I have been reminded of this – the need to give up trying to control my life.
I like rules. I like to follow them. I like to know where I stand. Even though I know I can never fulfill the law, I must admit I like having a list of do’s and don’ts. I so often find myself saying, “If you just tell me what to do, how to act, etc… I’ll obey” I just want the “list” so I can do what I am suppose to do.
But the root of all this is my idol. My idol of wanting to control. It’s a constant battle. What God is beginning to show me is that my desire for control, to be lord in my own life is sin. It really hit as I was listening to a sermon by Dr Tim Keller2 when he said, “The default of every human heart is self justification. We try to be our own savior and lord, trying to control our own life.” He was describing me. He was making me look deep inside to see the yuck in my heart.
Somehow it’s not so bad when we say “I have control issues”, but when we see it for what it really is we have no choice but recognize we want to be lord of our own lives. This my dear sisters is sin. It must be repented of. It’s an idol that must be destroyed.
My Adonai I have grieved you by making an idol of self and desiring control. Father shower me with Your grace. Continue to pull back the layers of my heart to reveal that which I still am trying to control. Show me those areas of my life I have not surrendered to You. Come Father and be Lord over all my life. Help me to say as Isaiah did, “Here I am!” Help me to die to all of self that You might live as Lord over all my life.
To know God and to know Christ as Lord (Adonai) means that I must relinquish my desires to want control over my life. I must give up my “rights” and allow Him to have complete reign over me. I must die and and allow Christ to live. (see Phil 1:21)
1 Nathan Stone. Names of God. The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, 1944, 2010, 62
2 Dr.Tim Keller.Prodigal Sons. http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/prodigal-sons
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