Submit Yourselves Therefore To God - James 4:7

This month I found a very timely message from twenty years ago that has abiding relevance for us. God bless you as you read and apply it to your life by God's amazing grace.

 HIGHLANDS GRACE REFORMED CHURCH

514 N. Pine St.

Sebring, FL 33870

SEPTEMBER 2003

“Submit yourselves therefore to God.” 
James 4:7

From The Pastor's Heart

Spiritual submission is a necessity for people who are serious about God’s grace. He has laid down this condition for all those who would receive his gifts of grace. “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” Submission always precedes God’s gifts of grace. But what is this vital spiritual reality? It has to do with taking your place under God’s authority. Strong’s Concordance says that the Greek word here means “to subordinate; to obey:--be under obedience, put under, subdue unto, (be, make) subject (to, unto), submit self unto.” It is a compound word from the word meaning under and one that means to arrange in an orderly manner. It is taken from military use, of soldiers submitting to their commanding officer. Thus it is the practical acknowledgement of who God is for you. When you submit yourself to God, you are acknowledging his right as your Creator and your Redeemer to do what he knows is best for you. Submission comes into use especially when you are in places you find unpleasant and difficult and harmful. Instead of trying to maneuver your way out, spiritual submission means that you are willing to accept the fact that God has brought you to this place. He is in control of your life. He has some purpose in what is taking place, even though you don’t know what it is, yet. He is your God. This submission involves owning all that God is for you - kind, loving, caring, true, reliable, wise, understanding, and so forth, even when outward evidence seems to contradict these truths. Spiritual submission is an act of faith. 

Spiritual submission especially involves your will. It means you are accepting God’s will for you and trusting him even when your natural will is different than his. Submission means that there is a point where you turn a deaf ear to what your flesh is telling you and humble yourself to accept God’s will. And it means you do this personally – “…Submit yourselves…”. No one can do it for you. You can’t passively wait and let it  happen. Have you been submitting your will to God?

When you are spiritually submitted to God you are contented with what God is for you and with what he chooses for you. He is better than all the things your heart could desire. (Prov. 3:15; Song of Solomon 5:10,16) This submission brings God’s peace to your heart. A Christian can’t have a peaceful heart until submission to God is a reality. Do you have his peace within? The world is always in a state of turmoil, like the churning of the sea. There is no peace for the wicked. (Is. 57:21) Always pursuing a mirage, but never finding what satisfies the deepest longings of the heart. The soul that is submitted knows a fullness and satisfaction in the Lord that can’t be found anywhere else. Submission is coupled with earnest and singular desire and seeking after the Lord himself – Ps. 27:4.

Submission is based on the recognition that without God, we can do nothing. It is very humbling to submit. You are confessing your need of God when you submit. You are confessing your lack of ability. On your own, the decisions and choices you make independently of God will always lead you to misery and ruin. You will choose what appeals to your flesh. The world and all its empty vanities will lure you to your destruction if you don’t submit to God. You can’t submit to God without being circumcised in your heart from confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3:3).

Submission is progressive. God gives fresh opportunities to submit to him in new areas as you mature and progress spiritually. Just when you think you’ve made great strides, God is faithful to humble you and expose areas of pride and self-sufficiency lurking in your life that need to be brought into submission to him. 

Finally, the only way you can be brought to the place where you are equipped to resist the devil is to be submitted to God. You are no match for the devil. Yet all those submitted to God are given a will to resist the temptations the devil offers. The devil loses his grip on you when you submit yourself to God. The submitted believers also have a will to resist his activity, his reign, his kingdom, his deception, his tyranny, his wickedness. But more than just the will to resist is given. God also gives a spiritual power to all who submit to God. The resistance is with the promise that the devil will flee from you. If we are to be instrumental in driving back the devil from his entrenchments in the church, in our own hearts and lives, and in the world we live in, we must submit to God. Will you submit yourself to God now?

Your loving pastor in our powerful Lord Jesus,

Ed Sager

"God’s true people have been conquered by the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are not our own, and we do not live for ourselves; we have lost our life that we may gain it. If this is not true of us, we are not God’s children. "

Rolfe Barnard, evangelist (1904-1969) from sermon, “Running Scared”