Submission

I find the word submission a difficult one to live by. The topic of submission is a common conversation among Christians, but not so quickly applied. The Bible has much to say about submission: “Wives submit to your husband’s in Christ, ‘submit to those in authority over you, ‘submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you, ‘you younger men submit to your elders.”

 The trouble is we don’t like to submit to the authority of God. We all like the idea and understand the concept of submission but let’s face it it’s not easy to do.

  This morning I came across the passage where Jesus comes John the Baptizer, in Matthew 3:13-17, to be baptized. John is taken back by Jesus’ approach to him. John knows Jesus as God. The one who has come to take away the sins of the world.  John makes the statement; “one is coming whose sandals I am not worthy to untie,” making it pretty obvious he had a full grasp on who was standing in front of him. John physically sees his cousin but the Spirit of God had revealed to him this was God incarnate. I love the statement Jesus makes in verse 15, “John for now this is the way it is, so we can fulfill all the necessary requirements of the law.” David Murrow puts it like this “it’s like a new golfer giving golfing lessons to Tiger Woods.” Are you kidding me? Do you think John was standing there scratching his head?

 There are times when God will lay something in our hearts that doesn’t seem to make any sense. In fact there are times when God asks us to do things that will make us look foolish or weak, or even to us like we might be in harm’s way. I recently experienced a situation like this. A long term situation has been brewing where I work; the situation was like a pressure cooker left too long getting ready to explode. A coworker who is a button pusher got out of hand. Last week things escalated to the point of getting outsiders involved. After several meetings there was a verbal reprimand that resulted in a meeting among our peers. The morning of that meeting I was going through my devotions and the Lord dropped in my thoughts that I should take the opportunity to ask this man to forgive me. WHAT?

 Literally after months of self examination, prayer, fasting and talking to other men in authority at church, looking for a Godly view of the situation, wondering if I was in violation of scripture or before God, I came to the conclusion I had done nothing wrong. Then the Lord tells me I need to ask for the forgiveness of a man who has no conviction of Godly matters or anything about God at all. Like John the Baptist, I was confused.

Jesus told John we need to do this to please God.

 I didn’t like what I was asked to do. I had a choice to make, would I go with what I was convinced to be right in my mind and emotions or obey God and do what felt very unnatural to me? An apology would make me look foolish in front of unbelievers, authorities over me and friends.

 The meeting went off pretty good. The opportunity came for me to speak up. Like a pregnant pause, you could hear a pin drop. I looked across the circle of 14 construction workers standing next to each other. It felt like two gladiators facing each other ready for battle. The work force divided into two camps, half with him and half with me. There was absolute silence, the air was so thick you needed a sawzall to cut it! I called my nemesis out by name, first stating the obvious issue between us then I said “if I have done anything to make you’re working environment uncomfortable, please forgive me.”

 Almost immediately there was an overwhelming sense of release in me, fighting back the tears welling up in my eyes. I wasn’t done. I addressed a problem with another man who had been a friend, now in the opposite camp, and asked for his forgiveness as well.

I learned a very deep and hard lesson this month. Submission to God is not always something that makes sense. Submission is a matter of obedience and a matter of will. Is Jesus Lord of my life, or just my Savior?

Living as a disciple of Jesus is not easy because in order to follow Jesus, submission is a requirement. Submission comes at personal cost. Jesus said “if you want to be my disciple you must pick up your cross daily.” Being called a child of the Living God has benefits, it holds many promises, but it’s not always easy, there is a cost. It would be easy to pay a monetary price to enter the kingdom, God knew that. The requirement of our devotion is at a personal cost of honoring Jesus as the King of Kings, it’s the hardest thing we will do in this life because it requires us to live as sacrifices at the expense of our sinful nature we were born into. Jesus placed the Holy Spirit in us to empower us to do the right thing and to guide us into all righteousness.

Submissions to the things of God are not always easy, but it teaches us how to live in the abundance of his favor, teaching us how deeply he loves us and wants the very best for our lives.

  Work hard at submission, to honoring the King of Glory. Love him and keep his words alive in your heart daily.