James 4:7-8
” 7 So submit to [the authority of] God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him] and he will flee from you.
A mother ordered her disobedient son to sit in a corner. After a couple of minutes of sitting, the boy told his mother, “I’m sitting down on the outside, but I’m standing up on the inside!”
Can one obey without submitting? I think the young man in the story above clearly illustrates that yes one can seemingly obey yet they have not submitted. To obey is an outward action that people see but submission has to do with the heart and attitude. You can obey but with a rotten attitude is that then submission?
To submit is to yield to a higher force or to the will or authority of another. If you and I want to walk in victory then the first place to start is in the place of submission to the authority of God over our lives. We have to accept that His ways are higher than ours and that His will is superior to ours. You and I have to willingly live our life according to His direction and instruction and everything we do has to stem from the drive of wanting to fulfill His purpose even when it hurts or does not make sense. Like Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane we have to come to the place we say not my will by thine be done!
God does not want to force us into submitting because then though we would obey our hearts would not be in it. Our submission to his authority has to be willful it has to be a personal decision out of which then we walk in obedience without having someone with a stick following us all the time to make sure we do it.
To submit to the authority of God is not a place of weakness neither is it a position of oppression. This is a place of victory a place where we can now effectively fight the enemy of our souls, the devil. It is not just a place of victory but a place of guaranteed victory each time every time.
Submit yourself therefore to God!
Reflections.
What does submitting to the authority of God look like to you?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
What’s the difference of submit and subject? Could you have confused submit and subject?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Do you submit only when it is convenient or at all times even when you don’t understand what God is doing?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
