Submit yourselves, then, to God… James 4:7 (NIV)
JAMES 4 – PART 1
James 4 starts with (from the MSG), “Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it… You’re spoiled children, each wanting your own way.”
I’m not gonna lie, I love getting my own way. It makes me feel happy, comfortable and at ease. There are some things that I want so badly, I’ve been willing to get them at the expense of others… relate? Tell a lie, disregard a friendship, betray, use, distort… if we’re honest, I think we’ve all been there. When you look at the atrocities happening around the world, and within some of our homes, it almost always comes back to selfish gain, power and control.
Submission has all kinds of connotations in our society. As a woman, I have to admit that when I hear this word a chill goes up my spine… it has been misused and misrepresented. To submit does not mean to be dominated or stripped of individuality and independent thought. It does not mean that you become a robot who blankly obeys what the ‘master’ says…
To submit means “to give over or yield to the power or authority of a higher entity; to be subject to some kind of treatment or influence.”
Look at it alongside those first few lines in James where he challenges us about taking what’s not ours, and forcing things to happen. You get a better idea of what submission is…
It’s to trust and willingly follow God; it's a choice to stop forcing things to come into our lives at the expense of others. It’s to understand that we are not in control… no matter how much we try and micromanage our lives and the seasons, we can never control the weather – some things are beyond our sphere of influence, and that’s OK. Let it go…
Submit to God – control what you can (your heart and responses), and let God lead you through the rest.
After all, yielding to the love of God and to be subject to His kindness, wisdom and grace will never leave us ripped off or used up. Quite the opposite.
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