How Do We Get There?

True submission comes when self has been humbled. And it comes as the result of God's work in your heart.

Ask God to do this work in your heart and be willing to look at what He shows you, without excuse. Let the conviction come. When you see yourself through God's eyes, it will be ugly...but then you will change by His power.

So how do we live this out and truly become free? Remember 2 things...

1) Get the right attitude - HUMILITY. Deal with your own resistance fully, including worry and fear. Do business with the Lord and get clean!

But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

~James 4:6-10

2) Use the right strength - GOD'S, not your own. Exercise true faith and walk by the Spirit. Learn to put up the sail of your boat and quit rowing! See Hebrews 11.

Remember, this is a process and you will fluctuate in your progress. If you respond in humility to the work God is doing in you, HE will get you there!

"That obedience which is not joyfully voluntary is disobedience." -Spurgeon

Let your gladness proclaim that you serve a good Master!

Understanding Submission

"Submission without faith is slavery; submission plus faith is power unleashed." -Bunny Wilson

When submission is lived out as God intended, we will have His strength and enjoy His peace. You will burn out every time you try to submit out of your own strength. "And GOD is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work" (II Corinthians 9:8).

We have some misunderstandings of the requirements of submission:
~"Doormat Syndrome" - Rather than serving out of duty and expectation, serve out of love for God and the family He has given you. Serve out of obedience to God. If you do, you will be cherished more and more by your husband and children.
~"I can't participate in any decisions. That's not submissive." - Not true! God has given you as a helpmate for your husband, not a slave. You are just as capable, if not more so in some areas, to discern what decisions are best. God has given you your own mind and His wisdom just as He has done for your husband. Be free to offer your opinion -- in love and at the appropriate time! Also, before and after you share your opinion, remember that your husband still has the final say because God has made him the leader of your home. Your husband may be right and you just can't see it at the moment. But if he is wrong, don't add to the consequence of that decision by becoming resentful and unsubmissive. We all make mistakes, and we all learn and grow from them. God will reward your obedience to Him and your support of your husband...which includes NOT saying "I told you so"...

God is after us and our attitudes. Your husband may be perfect, but most likely he is not. Even when he is difficult to submit to, you should not run to God expecting Him to change the situation or your husband. Yes, you can prayerfully ask for change, but never ever forget that God wants you to change as well -- always becoming more like His Son. When it is tough to submit, remember that submitting to your husband is really submitting to God. Then your attitude will be right, your obedience complete, and the situation WILL change because your perspective has changed...and your husband will probably change, too!

Submission puts us in the place of having to really look at ourselves. This goes along with the previous point. Instead of always asking, "God, change him," ask "God, change ME!" Submission is not hard because you have a difficult husband or tough situation. Submission is hard because we are sinful women. We want the control in every area of our lives. We extend grace to ourselves while laying down the law for others. Summed up in two words: pride, selfishness. Take your focus off of others and their "faults" and look at your own. You are responsible to be personally obedient to God. You are NOT responsible to make sure everyone else is obedient to God...or to what you want in life.

Today, see your OWN sinfulness and ask God to change YOU. Understand that your love for God should transcend the hardship of submission. You should love God so much that it is easy to submit to others....because you are submitting to your Ultimate Love and pleasing HIM!

Submission II: What Category Are You In?

We are all in one of three categories of submission no matter our marital status...

1) Rebelling Against Submitting - This is when your flesh is in full glory. Sin is ruling your heart. There is no joy in your attitude or service because you are in outright sin.

2) Dutifully Submitting - This is when your flesh is subjected but still very much alive. There is still no joy in your attitude and service, and tension is present in all you do. Submitting dutifully is using your own strength to submit -- this leads to bitterness and can be termed "Jonah Submission." Remember how he dutifully submitted to God's desire that the Ninevites hear of Him? His attitude was NASTY once he saw their repentance. Jonah was bitter that God had indeed kept His word to not destroy them. Jonah submitted outwardly, but his heart was full of resentment and bitterness -- subjected but living flesh. A good picture of this is being in a boat and rowing yourself to get to the other side. It's hard work, and you will fail if you do it in your own strength!

3) Truly Submitting - This is when the flesh is crucified and the Holy Spirit is free to flow through you. Harmony and peace rule your attitude and service which creates a home/family environment of harmony and peace. Yes, there may be times of friction when you must do battle between your old flesh and your new spirit to submit. But the peace is still there as the Spirit works on your heart and you obey. You will not fall into bitterness as you serve your heart out for others and follow your husband/father's lead time and again. Each time you successfully submit in true obedience to God's role for you as a woman, your love for Him and others will only increase, submission will become easier next time, and others will be drawn to you and blessed. In this boat, you have put up the sail and are letting the Wind move you. A much easier and more refreshing way to get to the other side!

True submission is where we discover the essence of God's power. In contrast, when we rebel against submission, we are quenching Him. We need to realize that God's ways are so wise and He knows exactly what He is doing. We must choose to believe it and obey Him -- submit to Him as we submit to those He has wisely placed over us. This is faith and "without faith, it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11:6).

Ladies, Get Ready!

Today was Titus 2sday at church, a time when alot of the women get together for study and fellowship. Today was about being "Liberated Through Submission: Seeing Ourselves Through God's Eyes." It was WONDERFUL! Yes, though I've only been married just a little while, I still have come a long way in the discipline of submission (discipline meaning both practice of and correction from the Lord in this area). At the beginning, the speaker asked who knew someone that would say submission is wonderful. I raised my hand with a few others. Then she asked who would themselves say that submission is wonderful. Praise God, I again was able to raise my hand. I know I have a ways to go and will never be perfect in submission (who will?), but I also know that for my age and stage in marriage...I am unique and mature in my view and practice of submission. I attribute it to God's grace in giving me examples of what not to do from both other wives and MYSELF and also by providing sound teaching in Home Ec on the roles of men and women in marriage.

So I will be posting the notes from today's lesson for a few days rather than Ecclesiastes. This woman has got it perfectly right. It would fit WELL into the level of teaching I gained from my professors! Why do I share them? Because it was a great reminder for me, and I want all of you to experience the freedom I have found in submission even in just a year and a half of marriage! Talk about making room for more love and joy within a marriage!

Introduction:
What we are going to discuss today is that God uses submission as a tool to free us from ourselves ~ which in turn brings us to the point where we can experience the strength of His power and the joy of His presence. It is at this place that we are that cleansed vessel that He can work through to use us in other peoples' lives ~ including our husbands.

Why do we not want to submit?
Sin ~ It is part of the curse; we want to be in control and we want to have it our way. Genesis 3:16 "...yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." Desire for your husband here is not romantic in meaning. Part of the curse on women was the desire to be in control of others when in reality her role is submission.
Unbelief ~ We are afraid to let go and we doubt that we would like God's Way. I Peter 3:7 "You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered."
Fleshly (I Corinthians 3:1) ~ We have earthly thinking and our understanding is completely off. I Corinthians 3:1 "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ."

Whose view do you have?
We have a sin-tainted view of submission instead of having God's perspective. We need our minds renewed on the true meaning and understanding of submission. We have no idea that it is really a wonderful thing!

Isaiah 55:8-9 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
James 3:17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.

Next: The Three Categories of Submission...Which one are you in?

3:14 and a Prayer

I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it. God does it that men should fear before Him.

Acknowledging God's enduring and perfect work will cause us to revere and worship Him as well as give our lives purpose and meaning as we go about our endeavors. Apart from Him, our lives and endeavors have no meaning and fall short of worthiness.

And take comfort in the fact that God and God alone is in control of everything. EVERYTHING. You can do nothing to mess up His plans for your life. You can do nothing to add to His plans for your life. He is completely sovereign and knows just how to orchestrate every detail so that your life will bring Him the glory due His name. If nothing else, that thought alone should take you to your knees in humble reverence and thanksgiving!

Journaled Prayer:

You are powerful and beyond time itself. And yet you choose to die, to forgive, to live in me. Father, how can I live for any other purpose than You? You made me eternal then chose me to be on Your right side. How could I ever be worthy of such a calling and purpose? I can never be worthy. You called me to a position requiring worthiness...then declared me worthy through Christ's blood. I never would have been worthy otherwise. That, Lord, is the wonder of salvation. Help me to grasp it and believe it all the more -- increasing in my wonder of You!