In order to know God, we must submit our will to Him. That is difficult for us to do, though. This daily devotional looks at why we should submit to God and why we don’t.
Nuggets
- It is our duty to surrender our will to God by submitting to Him.
- Some think that God requiring our obedience is a string to the gift, but it isn’t.
- If submitting to God is required, why isn’t it easier to accomplish?
Devotions in the Approach to Knowing God series
I have been thinking about doing a devotion on this topic for a while. Let’s face it. We don’t like the concept.
Surrender. Submit.
Oh, yeah. This is going to be a big topic, so we may be roosting here for a couple of devotions. Besides, God is taking me on a whole different path than originally planned.
So, buckle in. God is in control.
I know. We like to be in control. We don’t like people telling us what to do or not do. We don’t like someone else calling the shots.
But here comes God.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Godliness, equated with the Old Testament term fear of the Lord, is an attitude of reverence that is promoted by walking in His Spirit and obeying God’s laws and commandments and produces a moral likeness of God.
Let's Put It into Context #2
Nuggets from the previous devotions in the series:
- Knowing God is more than just thinking there is some Power Who created this universe.
- We are to understand; but knowing God does not mean we will be able to understand everything.
- We begin to know God when we diligently pursue knowing Him and doing His Will.
Why Should We Submit to God?
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jas. 4: 7 ESV)
It is our duty to surrender our will to God by submitting to Him.
Why must we submit to God? He is worthy of our worship. This is, Patterson noted, because of “… His rightful supremacy, His unerring wisdom, His unsullied justice, His irresistible power, His generous love, and His unswerving faithfulness, alike to the threatenings and the promises which He addresses to His creatures.”
Even though Sovereign God is supreme, He care about those He would have submit to Him. Patterson also wrote, “In dealing with men as sinners, the offended, but most merciful, Majesty of heaven has proposed certain terms as those on which alone He will receive any guilty soul into peace and favour with Himself.”
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There is only one way to God. “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 NIV).
Salvation is a gift. Salvation is deliverance from evil and the consequences of sins to replace them with good and eternal life.
Oh, I know. We have a hard time accepting gifts. We can usually overcome that for Christmas and birthdays.
But to have someone give us a gift just because? And a but-we-don’t-deserve-this-expensive-gift at that?!?
The gift of salvation is a very expensive gift! The price was Jesus’ life.
No, we don’t deserve the gift of salvation. But God wants to give it to us because of His grace and mercy. Grace is a free and unmerited gift from Heavenly Father given through His Son, Jesus Christ that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers by the work of the Holy Spirit. God’s mercy is the unexpected way God responds in love to our needs.
We tell ourselves that salvation shouldn’t be free. We convince ourselves that we need to clean up our acts because we are so unworthy of the gift.
Yes, we are unworthy. No, there is nothing we can do to make us worthy.
All we can do is accept this wonderful gift of salvation.
Then, Why Don’t We Want to Submit to God?
Some think that God requiring our obedience is a string to the gift. It isn’t.
We like to think that gifts should have no strings attached. And we see the requirement of submission as a very big string.
We just don’t fully get it. God is Sovereign God, Who made us. It is on His timetable that we leave this life.
That gives him the authority to be in control. He calls the shots.
Part of the problem is we want to be our own master. That was what the original sin was all about, isn’t it? Adam and Eve wanted to be able to choose what they could and could not do. They also wanted the wisdom they thought this fruit could give them.
Glossary
Spurgeon gave us a list of things that keep us from submitting to God. He wrote, “… lusting, envy, strife, contention, jealousy, anger, all these things declare that the heart is not submissive, but remains violently self-willed and rebellious. Those who are still wrathful, proud, contentious, and selfish, are evidently unsubdued.” Spurgeon reminded us that we will not be given salvation if we do not submit.
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Hunter said that our salvation must be built on our acceptance of God’s truths. It doesn’t matter that we don’t fully understand everything.
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Ouch. What about all those who want to rewrite Scriptures? We don’t like this being classified as a sin, so we want God to change His mind about it being Evil.
That isn’t submission, guys. That isn’t respecting the Sovereign God.
That is wanting our way, not God’s.
God isn’t going to accept that. Scott addressed this. He wrote, “We may object; we may try to find excuses for disobedience, but till we thus unreservedly submit to God, He will treat us as rebels against His authority.
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When we do sin, we don’t want to get caught. We really don’t want to get punished.
That, too, is not submitting to the Will of God. We want to be able to do what we want to do with no consequences.
Doesn’t. Work. That. Way.
Why is submitting to God so hard? Adam wrote, “The natural heart rebels against a gratuitous justification, against the renunciation of every personal claim, and the acceptance of a salvation for which we are wholly indebted to the mercy of God and the merit of Jesus.”
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Why Isn’t It Easier to Submit?
If submitting to God is required, why isn’t it easier to accomplish?
Whoa. I have to think about this sentence. Hunter wrote, “There is no truth clearer to the thoughtful mind than this, that nothing can be beyond the notice or the power of God; and yet there is no truth less practically received by a large part of mankind.”
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We keep saying it is hard to understand God. The His-ways-are-higher-than-ours verses (Isa. 55: 8-9) seem to back that up.
Even the definition of faith talks about believing without fully understanding. Faith is the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives.
But what Hunter is saying it is crystal clear that God is in charge. Nothing slips by His observation. There is nothing that is out of the scope of His power.
We know that because of the omnis: Omnipotent means God is all-powerful. Omniscience means God is all-knowing.
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
I think that God’s all-knowing and all-powerful is very clear to believers. We have experienced it.
It isn’t clear to non-believers because they haven’t experienced it.
It comes down to being our choice. Are we going to trust God enough to put everything in His hands and control?
We have to trust the one to whom we are submitting. That one is Sovereign God.
Why can we trust Him? He designed the Plan of Salvation to restore our relationships with Him.
God took the initiative. God planned it all out. God ponied up the sacrifice.
Why do we see submission to Someone Who would do all of that for us wrong?
We are to unconditionally surrender to whatever God has for us in our plan. Spurgeon wrote, “Knowing as we do that all these things work together for our good, and that we never endure a smart more than our heavenly Father knows to be needful, we are bound to submit ourselves cheerfully to all that He appoints. Though no trial for the present is joyous, but grievous, yet ought we to resign ourselves to it because of its after results.”
In what are we supposed to submit ourselves to God? In all things.
- When our wonderful job is taken away from us.
- When our beloved person is no longer around.
- When things don’t turn out the way we planned.
Making the Connections
Manton wrote that we need to submit all three of our hearts to God: our carnal heart, our proud heart, and our revolting heart. If we see sin as sin, it is easier to submit our carnal hearts to His holiness.
Submitting our proud hearts to His mercy is going to take a little more work. As insecure as we are, we usually do have a significant amount of pride.
It is our revolting hearts that is the hardest to surrender to God. They are diametrically opposite to what God wants.
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Too bad we generally don’t realize the peace and rest we get when we submit to God. Spurgeon wrote, “He never commands us to do that which, in the long run, can be injurious to us; nor does He forbid us anything which can be to our real advantage.”
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That should alleviate most of our rebellious arguments for not submitting to God. One of the sermons I read brought up the fact that Adam was more of a slave outside of the Garden of Eden than he was inside it.
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But it is hard to convince ourselves of that, isn’t it?
How Do We Apply This?
We have to submit our all to God when we ABCD. ABCDing does not give us a pass to go on sinning.
Patterson reminded us that there are things we need to do. We much change our character to imitate God’s. We have to dump our pride.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
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Glossary
It comes down to it is a choice to know God. Yes, we must submit to God’s Will, but it is our choice.
Father God. We submit to You. We don’t do this only because You are the Sovereign God Who made us. We do this also because You are love. You give us so much more – eternal life – than You ask from us – obedience. Thank You. Amen.
What do you think?
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