PSALM 31:3-5-For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.”
Submission. It is the most important word in the Christian life from start to finish. We become Christians by submission to the Lord in repentance and faith. Read the Apostle Paul’s conversion account in Acts 9 and though the word “submission” is not used, its application is clearly implied as he is confronted with the Lord Jesus. As goes the start of the Christian life so it continues. We daily submit our lives to the Lord for His plans and purposes to be fulfilled. But not only is submission the most important word in the Christian life from start to finish, it is the most necessary. Without this practice, there is no salvation nor growth in Christ. So with the importance and necessity of submission before us, what are the motivators in our lives to continue this practice? In today’s scripture, David gives us the top two motivators to keep us living a life of daily submission to the Lord with joy and willingness.
First, David’s glad submission flowed from a life knowing all that God had been and is to him. Ponder the roles God embraces to David and us–rock, fortress, refuge, redeemer. These provide confidence in our often fearful hearts. God is our stability, our protection, our strength, and our salvation. Knowing and experiencing Him as such moves us to welcome submission to Him. Why? God, our rock, fortress, refuge, redeemer, puts us in the safest places possible in this life and that to come. Submission becomes an exercise of the will with great delight. But there is another motivator in David’s life modeling submission to the Lord . . .
David willingly submits to his God because of what He has done for him–led, guided, and delivered him from all troubles and enemies. What a wonderful blend! Knowing God as He is and remembering God for what He has done makes submission to Him something we run to not run from.
Motives to submit to the Lordship of Jesus. There are many. He is worthy. He deserves it, but let the two David’s teaches help us to walk more and more in submission to our glorious God; the motives of who God is to us and what God has done and is doing for us. These will keep our hearts sensitive and in the position of willful, confident submission to the always good and perfect will of God.
PRAYER: “Father, help me see You as You really are that moves me to total submission with a glad heart.”
QUOTE: “When we know and experience all God is for us and has done for us, submission is welcomed and embraced.”
Because of Him,
Pastor Jim