Lately my heart has been so thankful for God’s design of
submission. And that through His Son, I can learn to be submissive in the most
impactful ways that glorify Him to the up-most. Before the Lord so graciously
saved me, I viewed submission in all the wrong ways. I thought of it as a demeaning
term and that it was something I had to do because it was “right” or because my
guy friends told me I needed to do it ‘cause I was a girl. You can imagine my
attitude towards submission then as an enemy of God. But through God’s grace He
changed the way that I viewed and lived out this term. He caused me to realize
the great privilege I have in learning what it means to submit to the glory of
Himself with all my “…heart, soul, mind,
and strength.” (Matthew 22:37) I’ve experienced the joy that comes when I
submit my will to the Father’s. Learning to trust in Him in the day to day
circumstances excites my heart to further serve the Lord. Sometimes submission
isn't always the easiest thing to do or even what I want to do when my flesh
fights it, but as a woman of God it is something I must learn to do in the
hardest of times.
In the past few weeks the Lord has granted me an incredible,
wonderful new avenue for me to learn submission. Just when I thought I had a good handle on it, God had a new challenge for me and knew the need for me to learn still. I honestly never thought I could learn
so much in such a short period of time, but through marriage God has continued
to open my eyes to my daily need for Him in order to submit and serve Him and
my husband the way I am called to. When I fully submit to my husband I am ultimately
submitting to the Lord. Learning to humbly serve the Lord as a single person
has just continued into the relationship I have with my husband. How thankful I am for this area where I can
continue to be challenged to grow!
Submission has also made me incredibly aware of the need for
prayer and the importance of it in my life. Apart from the well-known
scriptural calls to prayer, there are really two great human reasons, I've
learned, why we ought to pray. One because of the fact that prayer is the
source of power for growth and perseverance in our spiritual lives. How am I to
know how to best serve and love my husband, others, and my Savior unless I am
constantly on my knees asking for the knowledge to best do so? How am I going
to grow in endurance in the various areas of my life if I am not going and laying down my
life before the Father daily? The scripture tells us that “…He has given us all
that we need for life and godliness.” (2 Peter 1:3), through the living out of His Word. What better
way can we honor and glorify the Lord than to align ourselves to His Holy Word
and praise Him for it every day that we live? The second reason is that prayer
bends our will to God’s will, which is what submitting our life is all about.
Prayer and submission weren't designed to pull God to my will, but to align my will to His. How
awesome is this?! How awesome is it that we as God’s children have the
privilege to have our wills aligned with our Savior! Even when we don’t
understand why life brings hardships and trials, we can fully trust in the Lord
and have a true peace when we submit to Him and trust that He knows and has the best in mind for us "...for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28-30)
Yet how few of us exploit this opportunity to draw from Him
the power we need to press on or to have our will bent to God’s. How I have
failed in the past to try to understand how to better serve my Lord, how to
submit my life to Him, and praise Him in thanksgiving. Yet, He is SO gracious!
He has provided us a way to draw closer to Him and enter into His presence
daily….through the saving power of the Gospel and through prayer! Adoration and praise for our God quite naturally leads
to the presentation of our bodies – our entire lives – in an ultimate act of
worship. After the apostle Paul says, “For
from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory
forever! Amen.” (Romans 11:36), he immediately calls us to submission: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of
God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as
living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of
worship” (Romans 12:1).
Through learning about submission to God I realize that my
devotion results in a conscious yielding of every part of my personality, every
ambition, every relationship, and every hope to Him. This is a
daily task of laying down my life in which, by God’s grace, you and I can grow and one day be presented "...fully mature in Christ." (Colossians 1:28) I pray
that this encourages you to submit and praise the Lord in whatever stage of
life you are in. Submitting to the Lord is one of the single most effective ways we as women can make the Gospel attractive to others and exhibit a true heart of worship!
Tiffany
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