Submission, submit to, surrender to, yield to someone else’s control or advice, be obedient to.
There are many examples and ways in the Bible that relate to submission. Hebrews 13:17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
Hebrews 13:17 talks about a pastor in the life of a believer. We must hear the Word of God from a pastor, but there is more to it than that. The Bible commands that the pastor is to be a shepherd over his flock. Most “believers” these days have a problem with this. They do not believe the man of God has any right to tell them how to live their life. If the pastor is truly in line with God and has discernment, he can warn us of a trap the enemy has for us.
If the pastor is truly a man of God, and diligently studies the Word of God, the Bible, he can teach us how we can have a right relationship with God and prepare us for the coming of the Lord. I’m not going to get into the mess of pastors that are not right with God and are no different then someone in the world. A relationship with God does make a difference in our lives.
James 4:7 tells us; “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Submitting ourselves to God isn’t about a list of do this and don’t do this. When we understand what He has done for us by dying on the Cross, it will make us want to love Him as He loves us. Not to mention the fact that when the enemy tries to attack us, if we are in submission to God, the enemy has no choice but to flee.
James 4:8 “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” Again, it isn’t a list of things, it is a relationship with Jesus, and when we submit, or give our lives to Him, He cleanses us. He convicts us of our sins, things the Bible tells us are displeasing to God. And then He makes us new creatures in Him. He makes us free!
Another Scripture is 1 Peter 5:5 “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” In spite of what many of us believe when we become teenagers, we do not know all the pitfalls of life. We do not have all the answers and “old” or “older” people have not suddenly lost all common sense! Some of us find that we believe listening to others and their experiences in life is a waste of our time and we end up learning the hard way.
And now to the part many wives dread to hear. Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. The Scriptures in Ephesians 5:22-33 are about wives submitting to their husbands, but also the husbands submitting to the Lord. Ephesians 5 – KJV Bible – Bible Study Tools)
A couple of my best friends are married. I won’t name names or tell you their circumstances, but their lives and marriages are being transformed by these Scriptures. How, you say? As they are learning to give up control and making a way for their husbands to become the head of the household as the Bible says, they are beginning to experience marriages that are blessed by God. What? Let your husband make the decisions? Yes! Even when they are not the best decisions, once you allow the man to start becoming the “man” God intends for him to be, everything starts changing.
The key to this is for the wife to submit as to the Lord. And pray!!! Plenty of prayer! And following the example of Jesus. Luke 22:42 “Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” Jesus submitted to the Father and because of that, a way was made for us to be reconciled to the Father, and for us to experience many other benefits.
My friends and I have been doing a study on Ephesians 5:22-33. We are taking one verse at a time and meditating on what it means to us. How does it apply to us? What are our struggles with that verse or trying to apply it to our lives? Even though I am not married, I can still apply these Scriptures to my relationship and walk with God. We each make a report on the verse we are studying, and we learn from each other on how to apply it to our lives.
How do we learn to submit to a husband who isn’t right with God, or one that doesn’t seem to want to step up and be man of the house? Even a husband who doesn’t treat us right. My friends are finding out that as they give up control, pray, allow the husband to make the decisions and pray some more, it is changing their own walk with God and their marriages. The husbands are more willing to become right with God and to step up and be who God called them to be, as their wives are no longer trying to control everything.
I’m not trying to tattle on my friends, but I am seeing changes in their whole situation. As for me, the results are still just as dramatic. As I submit to God, as I pray, as I become obedient to what He is telling me to do, it is defeating areas that the devil has had strongholds in my life for years. I had experienced abuse for most of my life. One friend told me I’ve not seen change in my life because I have continued to walk on “abuse highway” and I won’t see change until I get off it.
Because I have been learning to submit more and more to God, I have found myself stepping off that highway. I refuse to allow the devil to continue beating me down. James 4:7 tells us; “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” God’s Word is true, but we have listened to the lies of the devil for so long, that he has convinced us that we will never see the promises of God in our lives. As we “obey” what God’s Word tells us, we can resist the devil and he does have to flee from us.
When Jesus hung on the Cross, He said “it is finished”. What he finished was destroying the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8 “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” Once we get this Scripture embedded in our very beings, it opens doors for us that we could not ever imagine possible. The Cross changed everything, but some of us have yet to learn this. Submit, give yourselves to Jesus, read, study and obey His Word. Live it. Do it and become the new creation God called each of us to be.
I encourage you to find a friend who would be willing to study this with you. Contact me and I will gladly share what my friends and I have learned. God bless each of you as you learn to submit to God, and if you are married, to your husbands as to the Lord.
The Importance of Submission
