Submitting To God

“Submit to God, and you will have peace; then things will go well for you.” – Job 22:21.

Submission is not very popular these days. The very sound of the word submission can offend many people today. Every Christian at one time or another will struggle with the concept of submitting themselves to God. Often, it revolves around major decisions in life.  “Lord, I have this job opportunity in California. Should I go or should I stay here in Florida? I want to submit to your will and your plan for my life.” Silence.

So we wait and then wait some more for the answer. More silence. Okay, I didn’t want to make this decision on my own. I wanted to submit it to God, but in lieu of a response, I will have to make the decision on my own. Major decisions are not the only time we will feel tension when trying to submit to God. Often it is because we need to fully understand the meaning of the word submit. On our job, most of us will submit all the time. In marriage we mutually submit. The government requires taxes and we pay them. But submitting to God is something entirely different.

If you are a project manager, you will submit your plans for a project to the decision makers. They will mark it up in red and typically offer a few suggestions or changes. Then as the project manager, you go back to work, refining, changing the project or proposal to make it better. We should look at Biblical submission in much the same way. You are the project manager for your life. You are managing your life as best you can. But then you show your life to God with the admission that “this is the best I can do. I’ve given you everything I have. But I realize I might have missed some things. Will you help me make it better?”

By submitting to God we allow Him complete control of our lives. As He works in us and through us, we will also see Him working around us. And where God works there is healing, life, and restoration. The purpose of submission is so that God can change the things around us, by changing us, and then working through us as project managers of our lives.

Submission is not easy. We run from it. We try to ignore it. But because of the submissive example of Christ, I want to submit all that I am to Him and allow Him to work in me, through me, and around me. 

Total submission of our lives to God is worship. Paul said as much in Romans 12:1-2: “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Discussion Questions

1. Is God the hardest to submit to in your life? Why or why not?
2. What are the benefits to submitting ourselves to God? Obstacles?
3. What do we need to do to allow God to improve our life project this week?