Submit.
Generally, not a word women like to hear because husbands have often used it to demand obedience to what they want. Even my character Sally Clark wrestles with this issue in my book Discovering Her Inheritance. I’m not sure I know of any woman who hasn’t.
I’ve often heard “wives, submit to your husbands” but without an explanation of what real submission looks like.
Bear with me. I’m not here to discuss wives submitting to their husbands, but to discuss our submission to God.
What does it mean to submit?
Submission doesn’t mean unquestioned obedience to someone. The root word is submit and means “to yield oneself to the authority or will of another” (Merriam-Webster, emphasis mine).
To yield is “to give up possession of upon claim or demand: such as : to surrender or submit (oneself) to another” (Merriam-Webster). Think of that yield sign you see when merging onto the interstate. You want to enter the interstate but must yield/surrender to the oncoming traffic. You yield because it’s the law, but if it wasn’t the law, you’d still yield in order to avoid an accident. Yielding is what’s best for you.
Submission implies there has been a discussion of an action in question. A husband and wife discussing and reasoning out an issue. If they disagree on the course of action, this is the point at which the wife is instructed to “submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord” (Eph. 5:22 KJV).
What so often gets left out of sermons on this topic is the phrase “as unto the Lord.”
The writer of Ephesians is telling us to first submit to the Lord, and we model submission to our husband (or others in our lives) after our submission to God. You might be asking “where does the Bible tell me to submit to God?”
In James 4:7a. “Submit yourselves therefore to God.” (KJV).
If we are not in submission to God, it means we are in rebellion. That rebellion might be in only one area of our lives, but it is still rebellion. And that opens the door wide to anything the devil wants to bring our way.
What is needed for submission?
Trust is an essential element to submission. Without trust, submitting becomes very difficult. Without trust, we become wary. We may submit, but we do it with the wrong attitude. It becomes a splinter in our mind that festers and grows into full blown bitterness toward that person.
But with trust it becomes easy because we believe that person intends only our best.
To trust someone, you must know them. That means spending time with them. And the primary way we get to know God is by reading the Bible.
God has only His best planned for us—not good, but best.
He must do what He’s said in His Word He will do. Otherwise, He becomes a liar.
“For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding ‘Yes!’ And through Christ, our ‘Amen’ (which means ‘Yes’) ascends to God for his glory” (2 Cor. 1:20 NLT).
The choice is ours. We can submit or not.
“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life” (Deut. 30:19 NKJV, my emphasis).
If you are struggling to trust God, check out these verses:
- Psalm 33:4
- Psalm 18:30
- Psalm 19:7
- 2 Sam. 7:28
- Deut. 32:4
Here are verses that speak to God’s faithfulness. Look them up and spend time thinking about them.
- 2 Thes. 3:3
- Lam. 3:22–23
- 1 John 1:9
- 1 Cor. 1:9
- 2 Tim. 2:13
- Heb. 10:23 (one of my favorites)
If trusting God is hard, ask yourself why. What fear is at the root of your distrust?
Are there any areas in your life you haven’t submitted to God? Make a list and commit to changing them one at a time.
In what area do you struggle to submit to God? Leave your answer in the comments below.