Good Monday To You!!
Have you ever heard this ugly 6 letter word, submit? I think I heard a collective Booooooooo. That’s ok because I feel you.
Here is the issue whether single or married; we all must submit.
The Bible (Yes the Bible) says:
| Jam 4:7 | Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. |
| 1Pe 5:5 | Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all [of you] be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. |
| Eph 5:21 | Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. |
Submit: to give over or yield to the power or authority of another (Someone did not like that, secretly I ain’t feeling it either.)
For singles and marrieds, submission is first to God and then to those he places in authority. (This is not blind obedience that serves even evil for the sake of submission. It is serving the greater purpose of God’s plan even when it scares us or we don’t understand…… Yes, there is a difference.) If you are married the authority after God is your spouse. There are also various scriptures about submission of a wife and husband in marriage.
Submission to God sounds beautiful and easy but it’s not. It requires trusting Him. That can be scary. Especially if we have had a history of abuse, loss, hurt, neglect, abandonment, etc. Our past wounds can really make it hard to trust God. They can even mean that secretly we are still angry with God for letting it happen; letting us do it; not stopping it; not healing; not saving, the list goes on. It is very difficult to submit in surrender when we don’t trust God. It all requires a process of healing that I know all to well (Pray for ya girl cause I had issues with God). However, as we go through the process of healing and forgiving God we most likely will come to 2 conclusions:
- God really does want good for my life. He is even working the bad out for my good. (Romans 8:28, sucks at first but later I got and I know it to be true.)
- Why does God allow bad things to happen? Answer: because He allows humans to have freewill. If we have freewill we have the ability to make wise, good and stupid, ugly choices that can effect others. If our choices cannot be carried out, we do not actually have freewill. God gave us a choice (Deut. 30:19), we must choose life even when death comes against us. (As for the death of the young or innocent and the like, these things cannot be given a simple explanation, only the rest of God knowing that He sees further, loves deeper and wants better for us and those we love than we do.)
Submission is largely about trust. This usually comes from a brokeness developed by watching our efforts to control life, ourselves and our families, fail miserably. We learn to submit when we see that life and people are bigger than our hands and plans. It’s not giving up; it’s giving in to a plan bigger than our finite understanding. It is learning to cast our cares on God trusting that He cares for us, more than enough to take care of us. Submission takes us from fighting against the tide of God to flowing in concert with Him (Act 5:39, here is a secret, your arms are to short to fight with God).
[Tangent: Eph. 5:22, Col. 3:18 are often used as forms of abuse against women by male dominated churches and insecure men. This is not to attack but to point out that submission requires strength of character and if scripture is used to beat a woman down, what you will have will not be true submission because it won’t be out of strength. Instead, you will have fear, deceitfulness, resentment, anger, a weakened soul and religious motions without a worshipping heart. In which case, she might as well not be saved because she is an unwilling prisoner not a surrendered and adoring heart. God wants surrender in obedience not fear driven sacrifice. A woman who feels loved, served and honored by her husband is happy to submit because she knows she can trust her husband. A man cannot truly serve his wife, love her, honor her or trust her until he is submitted to God himself and then submitted to his wife (Eph 5:21 Don’t ask for what you won’t give.). That does not take his role but instead broadens it. Sounds strange but in a nutshell, submission earns submission. Lead your house into order by being in order with God first. A Leader, true leader, is a servant 1st. He knows that he is only the leader because others are willing to follow, not forced to follow. Same goes for domineering, manipulative women, quit that, it is sooooo unattractive and it makes it hard for your children to respect you or your mate (submission earns submission and respect gets respect).]
God asks for submission to get us to work with His plan. He knows what’s best for us. We just have to work on our trust issues enough to get to the places He wants to bring us. Don’t take it as a sentence but instead, an assignment. You submit to your boss and work and you ain’t got a clue about how they feel about you or the true extent of their authority. This is omnipotent and eternally loving God who wants to put you on His team. That ugly 6 letter word ain’t really all that ugly, just uncomfortable. Let’s go baby and get’er done!!
God bless you and keep you. Talk to you next Monday, Lundi, Lunes 😀
Life, Love and Learning to You,
Good
thesinglegoodgirl 