Submission
-
I Am Willing
I am Willing….
To receive what You give me,
To lack what You keep from me,
To relinquish what You take from me,
To surrender what You claim from me,
To suffer what You ordain from me,
To do what You command of me,
To wait until You say to me, “Go.”
*Original Version by an unknown author, reworked by Chris Field, October 2008.
Found on Chrisfieldblog.com
-
-
Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun
The Making of an Ordinary Saint: My Journey From Frustration to Joy with the Spiritual Disciplines by Nathan Foster
-
“Scripture makes it clear that God has a plan and knows the best way for people to live. Submission is trusting that God’s instructions concerning this life are good for us. Instructions to forgive, serve and love are not given to abuse us but to set us free to be who we were meant to be.” - Adele Ahlberg Calhoun
-
“Father if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. He prayed more fervently. Luke 22:42-44 NLT
The Submitted Life
by Wendy Gerdes
“Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.”
As I have been contemplating what submission to God truly means this week, this childhood song so familiar to some of us has been going through my mind. I cannot help but notice there is a link between our belief and trust in God and our ability to live lives of submission to Him. The verse that comes to my mind is:
“In fact, this is love for God; to keep his commands. And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.” I John 5:3-4a
I believe that ‘burdensome’ commands are obedience without a heart of submission, but obedience as a result of inward submission comes from a love for God. I John 4:19 says that we love God because He first loved us. Our love relationship with God begins with His love for us and this love and trust is at the heart of our submission to Him.
How do we learn to submit our difficulties, our disappointments, our hopes and dreams and our everyday lives to God? What does that look like for us? I love how Tiffany so beautifully illustrated this in her lesson for us this week! If you have not, please watch it as it illustrates submission in real life so well. You can find it under the October 15th tab under Meeting Notes/Handouts/Videos.
True submission requires trust in the Good God who loves us unconditionally. It is letting down our walls of self defensiveness, self protectiveness, our ‘rights’ and the belief that we are on our own in this life. Without trust in Him, it is impossible for us to truly submit to Him. His Kingdom life is based on love and submission, but the world’s way is watching out for ourselves. This leads to all kinds of ways of doing life that are counter-productive to life with God. Without God, we are left with trying to make life work on our own terms which always leads to a life that is less than God intended for us. When we refuse to submit to the all-wise God, our lives become chaotic, but submission of heart eventually leads to peace despite circumstances.
I love words and sometimes it is helpful for me to look at a word’s opposite to gain insight about what the word really means. Some antonyms of ‘submissive’ are: stubborn, sassy, defiant, resistant, bossy, unyielding, aggressive, inflexible, overbearing, contrary, impolite, opinionated and many more.
I don’t know about you, but when fear, distrust or hurry begin to show up in my life, some of those adjectives describe my behavior at worst or my heart posture at best. These reveal my belief that I need to watch out for myself and sometimes I do this at the expense of others. Fears come when people I love do things I wish they would not and instead of trusting God with them, I try to control them. When difficult circumstances show up in my life, I beg God to fix my circumstances instead of work in Me. A question I am learning to ask is “God what are YOU doing?” I am learning that He is always doing something and He truly is the Master designer of our lives who can be wholeheartedly trusted. This means I can submit to Him without fear. In that, we can find peace no matter what is going on in our lives.
Berating ourselves, condemning ourselves and feeling guilty will not cure our difficulties with submission to Him, but learning to lean into Him will. When I am having trouble submitting, the issue can often be traced back to my beliefs. My lack of submission to God stems from a lack of trust in Him. The problem is not that He is untrustworthy but that I believe Him to be so. Eve sinned in the garden because satan dismantled her belief that God’s intentions towards her were good. Her wrong belief about God led to that fatal act of disobedience.
As our love for God grows and He dismantles wrong beliefs we carry about Him, our ability and desire to submit will also grow. If we find ourselves often stressed, taking matters into our own hands, trying to control situations around us, playing it safe, or hiding behind our ability to be in charge, these are good indicators there is something in our lives God wants us to submit to Him. We do not need to be afraid or discouraged if we do not know what that is, do not know how to give it to him, or even do not currently want to. He is able to overcome any of that and give us the wisdom and desire to know what next step we need to take in this lifelong pursuit of full trust in and submission to Him. Submission to Him is where true freedom is found.
Link to Wendy's blog