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I just finished reading a book called Passion and Purity” by Elisabeth Elliot, and let me tell you…this book has blown my mind!!!
The last several weeks, I have been learning about submission and what that looks like in my life – being a single woman with out a man to even think of applying this to my life, I have been trying to figure out how this works. So, in submitting as I am commanded as a believer and Christian, who do I submit to then? This submission is different then the submission commanded for a wife to her husband. It requires our whole will, all of our might, and a surrender that is unlike a surrender any human could give to another human. This submission is paramount to the husband-wife submission. The phrase “submit to God” seems easy. Try applying the phrase “submit yourself to God” to your life and tell me how easy that actually is.
All to quickly, I want to do my own thing, submit to my own will, and follow the plans that I make for myself. But, being a Christian, I eliminate myself from those choices the moment I decided that I wanted Christ to Lord over my life. Mark 8:34-38 speaks to this: “And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’”
As a Christian, I forfeit my rights as a human being and allow the Lord to control my life. That is a scary thought if you do not know the Lord, but when you begin to understand who the Lord is, it is quite freeing because he is so faithful.
In Passion and Purity, a section talking about submission to God really stood out to me. It says: “The growth of all living green things wonderfully represents the process of receiving and relinquishing, gaining and losing, living and dying. The seed falls into the ground, dies as the new shoot springs up. There must be a splitting and a breaking in order for a bud to form. The bud ‘lets go’ when the flower forms. The calyx lets go of the flower. The petals must curl up and die in order for the fruit to form. The fruit falls, splits, relinquishes the seed. The seed falls into the ground…. There is no ongoing spiritual life without this process of letting go. At the precise point where we refuse, growth stops. If we hold tightly to anything given to us, unwilling to let it go when the time comes to let it go or unwilling to allow it to be used as the Giver means it to be used, we stunt the growth of the soul.”
This is remarkable. In my own life, I see this whole process occurring right now. There was a seed, it was planted, but before giving life, it has been broken from the life it was in, it has died, it has split and is now giving life to a new growth. Hindsight is most definitely 20/20. When the beginning of the trials had come into my life (The brokenness, death, and splitting), it seemed as though everything – life itself – was ending. But, to my surprise, the new life Christ desired for me to have was just beginning. I am only at the beginning stages of growth that the Lord desires for me to be at. This brokenness, death, and splitting is such a gift from the Lord. It is remarkable to me that I am actually able to say that now.
Elisabeth Elliot continues later on that page: “It is easy to make a mistake here. ‘If God gave it to me,’ we say, ‘It is mine. I can do what I want with it.’ No. The truth is that it is ours to thank Him for and ours to offer back to Him, ours to relinquish, ours to lose, ours to let go of – if we want to find our true selves, if we want real Life, if our hearts are set on glory.”
It is so easy to get caught up in the game of it’s mine because the Lord gave it to me, but it is never mine. I never know what is truly best for me. If I do not understand this truth, it is sure to be plucked out of my hands (like this last year has been). In the past, I have held on too long. The Lord knows all and he knows what is right. Trust him and obey the moment he commands us to. It is crucial.
“Think of the self that God has given as an acorn, It is a marvelous little thing, a perfect shape, perfectly designed for its purpose, perfectly functional. Think of the grand glory of an oak tree. God’s intention for us is ‘…the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.’ Many deaths must go into our reaching that measure, many letting-goes. When you look at the oak tree, you don’t feel that the ‘loss’ of the acorn is a very great loss. The more you perceive God’s purpose in your life, the less terrible will the losses seem.”
Isn’t this the truth?! When I know a glorious oak tree is planned for me, in no way am I going to settle for the little tiny itty-bitty acorn. That would be foolish. I need to commit my way to the Lord and be willing to let it go of things that he has given me at one time if that should be His will because I know he has an oak tree destined for me. This seems easy to understand, but it is still difficult.
I will conclude this post with a quote from another book I am reading, Disciplines of a Godly Woman by Barbara Hughes: “Does the word submission feel uncomfortable to you? Put it back into your vocabulary. All the disciplines of a godly woman [ or man 🙂 ] are about submitting your will to God’s loving rule in daily life. Reject the popular voices that entice you to put your needs first, to protect your self-interest and rights, to push at God-given boundaries. Search the Scriptures to understand how Jesus did it – and then follow His example – because Jesus Christ is Lord!”
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“Take Thou the full possession of my heart. Raise there Thy throne, and command there as Thou dost in heaven. Being created by Thee, let me live to Thee. Being created for Thee, let me ever act for Thy glory. Being redeemed by Thee, let me render unto Thee what is Thine, and let my spirit ever cleave to Thee alone.”
John Wesley
To Be Continued… =)
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