Who Masters You?

"I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven. As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he shows us his mercy.” Psalm 123:1-2

In studying the different names of God, I came upon one which highlights an important relationship with God, the master-servant relationship. The root word for Adonai – Adon – means to rule, master or lord. It was a term used by someone of a lesser status when addressing a person of a higher one. This could even be used in the family unit from a younger sibling to an older one. The meaning of Adonai is understood as “My Great Master”. This name conveys the idea that He has the absolute authority along with the right to rule in our lives. It makes the assumption that He is our individual master with an individual relationship.

This world offers many competing masters but only One can offer the full measure of completeness as Adonai offers. I use to allow the love and approval of others to master over my life instead of trusting God to work out all things in my life. When going through the time of my daughter’s drug use I allowed fear to master over my life not trusting God in His ultimate ability as her Master. Our Master looks upon our lives and sees the dangers and trials up ahead and prepares appropriately. He will never be caught off guard as adversity slips into our lives through the back door or head on.

Whatever enslaves will master your thoughts, decisions and actions making it the direction of your path. (“…for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him” 2 Peter 2:19b) The good news is that Christ came to free us and through our decision to serve Him as our Great Master we obtain freedom through our enslavement to Him.

One of the greatest paradox that exists is through our enslavement to our Great Master comes our greatest freedom!