Better Late Than Never
How do you feel about “submission”?
Verse of the Day
‘Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.’
Today’s Devotional
Earlier this year, I was going through the book Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster and writing about each of the disciplines he covers in the book. I got sidetracked from that because of…well…the circumstances of my life. I could not devote the time and attention to the study that I felt it deserved, but now I can.
Which lands us on the discipline of submission. And we need to be honest and realize that this word, “submission”, conjures up some negative emotions for some people. This is likely because someone in their life abused this principle.
Foster writes, “Of all the Spiritual Disciplines none has been more abused than the Discipline of submission. Somehow the human species has an extraordinary knack for taking the best teaching and turning it to the worst ends. Nothing can put people into bondage like religion, and nothing in religion has done more to manipulate and destroy people than a deficient teaching on submission. Therefore, we must work our way through this Discipline with great care and discernment in order to ensure that we are the ministers of life, not death.”
How, then, do we discuss submission in a way that is life-giving? Let’s see what Foster has to teach us.
“The purpose of the Disciplines is freedom. Our aim is the freedom, not the Discipline. The moment we make the Discipline our central focus, we turn it into law and lose the corresponding freedom. The Disciplines are for the purpose of realizing a greater good. In and of themselves they are of no value whatever. They have value only as a means of setting us before God so that he can give us the liberation we seek. The liberation is the end; the Disciplines are merely the means. They are not the answer; they only lead us to the Answer. We must clearly understand this limitation of the Disciplines if we are to avoid bondage. Let us forever center on Christ and view the Spiritual Disciplines as a way of drawing us closer to his heart.
What freedom corresponds to submission? It is the ability to lay down the terrible burden of always needing to get our own way. The obsession to demand that things go the way we want them to go is one of the greatest bondages in human society today.”
Have you ever considered yourself to be in bondage to your own will? Have you ever stopped to think that wanting things your way is a burden?
My first thought is, “Well, if everyone around me would just do it my way without a fight, it wouldn’t be a burden.”
Getting people to bend to our will is not the burden. The need or desire to have things go our way is the burden. This burden is what the New Testament refers to as “the flesh” or the “sinful nature”. Galatians 5:17 says, “The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.” My sinful nature wants my way, the Spirit in me wants God’s way.
For today, let’s be honest with ourselves about the fact that each of us wants our own way. We may not act on that, but the selfish desire is still there. The devil would like nothing more than for each of us to live a self-focused life. Let’s also follow the teaching of today’s verse: Submit to God.
What does that look like? For me, today, it is acknowledging God’s rule and reign in my life and over all things. It’s asking for His help and direction. It’s praising His majesty. It’s asking for Him to show me when I am wanting my own way, and asking for His help to not give in to my selfishness.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
Are you willing to submit yourself to God? What does that mean for you?
How would you describe submission to God? How can you practice that today?
How has your “flesh” caused burdens in your life?
How can you actively submit to God today?