Submission Reveals God's Handiwork

Hello friends and hello September! With a new month, comes a new one-word series - our Submission Series! Let's begin the way we always begin these series, with definitions.

My concordance defines submission as: humbleness; obedience.

That is exactly what we do when we submit our lives to God. We are humble and obedient.

Now let's see what Google has to say about submission (and, as always, I will point these definitions back to Christ):

• the action of accepting or yielding to a superior force or to the will or authority of another person.

Accepting or yielding to God's will and authority!

• the action of presenting a proposal, application, or other document for consideration or judgement.

Submitting our lives to Christ isn't like submitting a form for approval. Just like how we can freely invite Jesus into our lives, we can freely submit our lives to Him as well - no approval needed! Both of which sort of go hand in hand. So, the only thing I can really pull out of this definition is that God is the only just judge and will judge our lives whether or not we submit our lives to Him.

• an act of surrendering to a hold by one's opponent.

There it is. The word I knew would pop up in this series - surrender. Just so happens to be my word for this year. This particular definition is derived from wrestling. Have you been wrestling with God? Surrender!

• humility; meekness

In our Peace Series, I defined the word meek: quiet, gentle, and easily imposed on; submissive. I mentioned how we should be quiet, gentle, and easily imposed on by God. We should be open to Him -submissive to Him.

Here is an analogy I learned this past week while homeschooling my friend's son (a job I recently started):

Did you know there is a star hidden inside an apple?

If you take an apple, lay it on it's side (with the stem horizontal), and cut it in half; you will see the star which is God's handiwork. You can only see it if you lay the apple on it's side. In the same way, if we lay our lives down for Christ, we will see God's handiwork in our lives.

Pearls on a string anyone? You might be confused by this statement, and if you want the full analogy of it, go back and read my blog called 'Pearls On A String'. But, to sum it up, it is an analogy of mine that describes how topics seems to link up around the same time frame; what God's been telling me, what I've been reading in my Bible, what I've heard at church, etc.- just like when you place pearls on a string. God has a way of confirming concepts that He's wanting me to grasp.

Well, my friends, I feel like we have gotten off to a good start! This month, as we dwell on submitting to God, I hope you will find joy in it. Submitting is never an easy thing to do, but when we submit to Him, it is worth it.