Ephesians 5:21~ Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
Submission. It’s almost a dirty word in society today. You can drop any vile, profane word in a room full of men, women and children and nobody turns their head; but speak about submission and you’ve got a fight on your hands. There are two definitions for submission, the one (which causes the fight) is the “The action or fact of accepting or yielding to a superior force or to the will or authority of another person.” I love the dictionaries use of it in a sentence. “They were forced into submission.” Even the dictionary thinks it’s a bad thing. And then there is the second definition, the one I want to focus on today (and not because I fear the first, I believe in submission as a wife and a servant of God). The second is thus: the action of presenting a proposal, application or other document for consideration or judgment. That doesn’t sound too painful does it?
As a matter of fact, in my world it sounds exciting. Submitting an idea to someone for consideration leaves open the possibility for a new project or venture and that’s the stuff excitement is made of. What if each one of us went into the house of the Lord, knelt at the altar and submitted our ideas before the Lord. He may in all reality send you back to the drawing board, I’ve experienced that many times. But He may just say, “Let’s do it!”
That apostrophe “s” in the word “let’s” is you and Jesus. That’s where the first submission definition comes back into play. I know… tricky, tricky…. Right? You were excited right? New projects do that to people. Or at least me! But take it from the queen of trial and error, leaning much heavier on the error side; if you want success in your life submission is key. Whether we’re talking about family, career or the church, there’s an order, and without it there’s a battle.
Life’s a project.
If you submitted your life for approval what do you think would be the result? I know the answer in my own life. ~ REJECTED: You need to do a little more work on this and resubmit, Shari. Clearly some of your ideas have not been well thought out.” Mainly because I set myself up for failure by not having submitted myself to Him. God knows we have great ideas, He gave them to us as an assignment. But He didn’t give them to us to be changed and manipulated into our own and for our own glory. They were His and for HIS glory.
He gave us a family as a project for us to work on together, and submit ourselves to each other in love and mutual respect, understanding authority and accountability to God, and for His glory.
He gave us a career as a project for us to work on together, and submit ourselves to each other in love and mutual respect, understanding authority and accountability to God, and for His glory.
He gave us the body of Christ as a project for us to work on together, and submit ourselves to each other in love and mutual respect, understanding authority and accountability to God, and for His glory.
So… what’s your project idea? Have you submitted it to God for approval? Have you submitted to the authorities involved to get it accomplished? And most of all, will it glorify God?