Submit yourselves therefore to God…….. James 4:7
When believers hear the word submission or submit spoken of, we tend to fast track our thoughts to passages in Scripture that have earthly relationships in mind. The most common being, “wives submit to your husbands” or “obey your leaders and submit to them for they watch over your souls…”
Although these well-known commands from Scripture are imperative for the healthy function of marriage and life in the church they are only secondary components that flow out of a greater and more vital submission. Our submission to God!
The idea of submission is generally considered a weakness in our culture as we love the idea of being autonomous, self -governing and answerable to no one except ourselves.
But the believer does not live for him or her self. Our lives including every aspect and every circumstance are to be submitted to the sovereign will of God. This means that we exist, work, play, relate and grow older for God. Nothing, no circumstance, no event or person in our lives is to be outside our area of submission to Him. We are to live in total submission to the Lord. Why?
I like how Nancy Leigh De Moss answers our question.
Once we agree with God that we exist for His pleasure and His glory, we can accept whatever comes into our lives as part of His sovereign will and purpose. We will not resent, resist, or reject the hard things, but embrace them as friends, sovereignly designed by God to make us more like Jesus and to bring glory to Himself.