“The Lord is my chosen and assigned portion, my cup; You hold and maintain my lot.”
Psalm 16:5 (Amplified Bible)
One of the saddest realizations I had during the writing of my bible study, Living With Unmet Desires, was that Saul had everything he needed to rule over Israel, but lost the kingdom, the respect of his family, and ultimately took his own life because of his rabid jealousy of an enemy that only existed in his mind. The more insecure he became about David, the one who would succeed him as king, the more he falsely believed he had to jockey for position. Whenever we have to sin in order to hold on to something or someone, we are never in more danger of losing it or that person. God does not honor us stepping all over people to get what we want.
I am learning some painful lessons about submitting to someone I do not want to. My sinful side wants to rush to protect what I perceive as mine. God is asking me to loosen my grip and to trust that He is my security, not what I am trying so hard to hold on to. Some of the deepest work that God has ever done in my life has come from learning to submit to people I don’t want to submit to. It is in the submission that I see the ugly ulterior motives, the selfishness, the lack of humility, and entitlement in me that cannot coincide in this heart that I say belongs to Christ.
It is easy to think that the person I am struggling with happened by chance in my life. That I am to just grit my teeth and say, “This too shall pass…eventually.” By doing that, I could miss out on a life-changing encounter with the One who ordained the difficult circumstance I am in. I am realizing that by not submitting to God’s plan in my situation, I could forfeit the grace that could be mine if I would just let go and let Him be in charge. I shudder at the thought of losing the blessing and protection of God because I want to be rebellious.
“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Ephesians 5:21
So that difficult boss, spouse, partner in ministry, child, ex-husband or wife, parent or parent-in-law, friend could be the very one who teaches us what is so hard for our minds to comprehend: Jesus is it. He’s everything. He alone is our security. Everything else is just built on sinking sand.
