1 Peter 5:6-7
6 So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.
7 Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you.
James 4:7-8
7 So submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
Psalm 46:8-11
9 Come and see the works of the LORD, who has done fearsome deeds on earth;
10 Who stops wars to the ends of the earth, breaks the bow, splinters the spear, and burns the shields with fire;
11 Who says: "Be still and confess that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth."
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In my opinion submitting to God is the ultimate fork in the road, particularly for men. We don’t want to give up control. But over and over and over again, throughout the old and new testament, God tells us to do exactly that. So … what does it mean to submit to God? It means a lot of things, but the first step is obedience. Submitting to God means saying that you will no longer make your rules, and that you will submit to His:
John 8:31-32
31 Jesus then said to those Jews who believed in him, "If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
When Christ calls us to remain in his word, he is calling us to obedience. Once we are faced with the Word, we have a choice to make – belief and submittal to it, or not. If we believe but we do not obey, we are caught in a kind of spiritual limbo. This happens to a lot of people. In my opinion, for men the reasons come from two places – either fear of the unknown (ie, what will happen to me, what do I have to do, what will be taken from me), or a prideful refusal to give up control.
Yet if we remain in the word (ie, obey), Christ promises us the truth, and that the truth will set us free. Some people spend years studying the word before finally coming to this point. I was one of those people. Finally I woke up and realized that the call to obedience was firm. Once I responded to this call and submitted to Christ’s authority, I was able to understand a lot more about the concept of the pursuit of spiritual maturity and the surpassing joy that can come from that pursuit.
