Submission to God-What does this mean?

Submission to God

Submission to God is an ongoing process in the Christian walk. Submission means to come underneath God, to abdicate your thoughts, plans, and ideas to God's Word and His plan for your life. This can be confusing as we move through life, faced with choices and challenged by the desires of our hearts.

As a noun, submission is the condition of being submissive, humble, or compliant; an act of submitting to the authority or control of another. As a verb, submission is to yield oneself to the authority or will of another; to permit oneself to be subjected to something; to defer to or consent to abide by the opinion or authority of another.

Submission is not a natural concept. We are taught to be independent, think for ourselves, and rely upon our own resources. Submission has negative connotations: giving in, backing down, servitude, and cringing.

Submission to God is first to trust God and learn that He is loving, kind, and has a good plan for your life. As you grow in God, you begin to understand that His Word is not written to hurt you. God understands human nature; He has given wisdom in the Word to help us live well.

As we come to understand God's Word and trust Him, we begin to see the opposition in our hearts to living a Christ-centered life. It is our natural desire to hurt someone who hurts us, but God asks us to forgive. In our quest for success, we often look for ways to gain an advantage over others, promote ourselves, and devise methods to achieve our own ends.

David, a man after God's own heart, contrived a way to be with a woman who was not his wife. Then, when she became pregnant, she tried to find a way out of the situation.

God does not look for our strengths. God looks at our hearts. 1 Samuel 16:1-13 tells us how David was chosen to be king. When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord." But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, "The Lord has not chosen this one either." Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, "Nor has the Lord chosen this one." Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The Lord has not chosen these." So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?" "There is still the youngest," Jesse answered. "He is tending the sheep." Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives." So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a pleasing appearance and handsome features. Then the Lord said, "Rise and anoint him; this is the one."

What does this have to do with submission to God? David trusted God and knew Him as his strength and his source. He accepted that God had anointed him and set out to learn to be a king. However, the power clouded his judgment, and he carried out his own agenda.

What is impressive is that when David was confronted with his sin, his inner man immediately went to his knees. He was, in his innermost being, submissive to God. (Psalm 51) What impressed me the most about David's submission was verse 16: "For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it."

God is not looking for us to perfect ourselves. He is looking for hearts that are imperfect, yet willing to trust Him and try. God will create smooth paths within us. He will reason with us and show us the wisdom in living a life modeling His Son, Jesus. Submission is trusting God and letting Him change our hearts and our lives.

Psalm 51:1-19 (ESV)

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Friends-God's Blessing

 I praise the Lord for gracious gifts:
Among them, there is you. 
It is your faith
In who I am
In God that guides me through.

When dreams I hold like infants

Fail and crumble into dust,

I lose perspective,
The visions blur,
My heart begins to rust.

I sit with women, their hearts like home,
True fires and comfort abound.
They know who I am; they have desert dreams.
They have heard desire's death sound.

Now drenched with disappointment.
Then gouged by sudden grief,
They have hearts still soft,
Nurturing infant dreams
To soothe the disbelief.

We laugh like children as life reveals
Sweet joy and irony.
We weep women's tears torn by shifting days
Of shock and tragedy.

Lifeboats we are to each other,
Swift, and buoyant with belief.
Shields in sudden sweeping storms,
A compass through the grief.
Surrounding each other
With love and hope
To prevent and turn the harm.
Holding tight to each with truth and faith
Like infants in our arms.

Consider Him who is faithful-Poem for those who are waiting on God

The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Lamentations 3:25-27 (ESV)

Consider Him who is faithful.

I turn dreams to heavy things,

Demanding, like a child.

I lose sight of vision

Staring at the present reality

As if it were the only one.

I seek the Lord for answers.

Already given in the vision world

Of faith and certainty. 

Oh, faithless heart, distraction of my sight!

My soul grows faint in battle

With my soddened self.

I cry for mercy, relief from such a foe. 

Mercy always comes. And such a sweet face.

The Lord smiles.

My soul finds rest in the gleam of His eye.

I stand again to move through one more day,

Just present reality,

And reach the vision set in trust for me. 

Then there will be one more.

Do You Know How Much God Loves Us

What does it mean that "God loves us"? This kind of love is beyond what we can comprehend with our natural minds. 

God created man in His own image (Gen 1:27) to fellowship with Him, to be stewards of the Earth, and reflect His divine life. God knew in this beginning about the first murder, the betrayal, the idolatry, and human self-glory, yet God still created man because of God's great love for us.

There was a time when God regretted that He created humanity, and the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the Earth, and He was grieved in His heart. Gen 6:6. But, before he destroyed his creations, He found a man who loved him, and gave this man, Noah, the knowledge needed to avoid destruction. 

After the flood, when the Earth was once again dry, Noah offered praise to the Lord. And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, "I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. Gen 8:21E

This is an excellent example of God's all-encompassing love. God purposed in His heart that He would always love humanity despite the failings and betrayals.

The closest example I can think of is the love that I have for my children. What mother doesn't love her newborn unconditionally? What that means is days of diapers, hours of feeding, being on call for any cry, holding and rocking, and there is no sleep. And as the baby grows despite the tantrums and misbehavior, love lives. Love doesn't count, it keeps, kisses, and wonders at the miracle that is your child.

More than the love we know for our child, the love of God is greater, totally unconditional. These are paraphrased words from Clay Davidson's song "Unconditional." "The child said, "I hate you," and slammed the door. The father replies, "You can't stop my love for you; it's a given. You can turn away, forget me, curse my name, but love won't let go, it's unconditional." 

To me, this sums up how much God loves us. 

Unbelief-This is Woe

The Israelites wandered in the desert because they refused to make the decision to walk by faith, and not by sight. For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD—to whom the LORD swore that He would not show them the land which the LORD had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, "a land flowing with milk and honey."
NKJV Joshua 5:6

Struggling in this sifting sand

with no firm ground below,

Among this crowd of nomads,

wondering in woe.

Wandering within these walls

of blue and white hot light,

Days spent walking forward,

Resting quietly each night.

Finding bread each morning

spread across the sands like dew.

Witnessing a stone being struck

and water flowing through.

Following a column

lighting one step at a time,

What now seems so uncertain,

Was it once so all divine?

My legs do not grow weary,

My clothes do not decay,

I follow, I am silent,

I do not know the way.

I'm curious about the land

beyond what I can see.

I know the land that's now behind

and burns my memory:

As fear and worry capture me

I ponder at my plight

Give voice to discontentment

And rail against this flight.

To choose to stay, or choose to slow?

But if I leave, where will I go?

Dwelling in the land now past

Freedom was my dream.

But in these walls of desert

What freedom can be seen?

I cry aloud, to God..

And pause. Wipe blinding sand aside.

I remember I was rescued

I walked through walls of tide.

My steps grow quick, a song bursts forth.

I lift my voice, now strong.

I hear the praises echo

through this great nomadic throng.

I look up to the light again-

A steady, constant glow.

And steady now my heart responds

That where it leads, I'll go.

I know now what is woe.