"NOT ‘IF' BUT ‘WHEN' WILL YOU YIELD? THE ASSURANCE OF SUBMISSION"

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Added: Thu. Nov 05, 2009 8:54am
Posted in: Religion & Spirituality

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BY Aaron Welch, LMHC, NCC, CSOTS

 

            Have you ever had those “aha” moments?  You know…the ones where you already knew the fact or truth but, suddenly, you really “got it”?  It happens to me a lot now.  Things I’ve been taught and known (intellectually) since childhood all of a sudden knock me over the head, as if I JUST learned them.  I guess, in a way, that is true.  In a very real sense, I am learning so many old truths in a new way.  It’s pretty awesome while at the same time pretty humbling because I wonder why it took 40 years to get it. 

     Many times, these truths are found in scripture.  Scripture I probably memorized as a camper at Ohio Valley Christian Assembly.  Scripture my parents most likely grilled into my head.  Scripture I learned in order to get a gold star on the wall of my Sunday School room.  Yet, suddenly, I get it. 

            One of those is the scripture that promises that “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”.  All my life I knew that verse.  I understood it.  I really did.  On the day when Christ returns to judge the earth and take the saved to heaven, everyone will realize and bow to His reign.  Easy, right?  Wrong.  Easy to cognitively get.  Easy to regurgitate to a teacher.  Easy to believe, theoretically.  Yet….do we really fathom what this means?  It means that EVERY person on this earth will be forced to admit that Jesus is Lord, that He is all He said He was and more.  The most rebellious of atheists will be forced to admit it.  The hardened criminals will gasp in belief.  The skeptical scientists will have all other hypotheses go down the drain.  And the lukewarm Christians of this planet will realize how lightly they took such a serious matter.  The last part is the scariest for me.

            I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to REALLY be submitted to Christ.  Not partially submitted.  Not just a believer.  Not a church-goer.  Not a religious person.  Not a seminary graduate.  I mean…a SUBMITTED believer in Christ.  I mean a person that lays EVERYTHING on the altar before the Lord.  I’m talking about sacrificing all of ourselves to God:  our spouses, our children, our career, our comfort, our suffering, our desires, our SELVES.  The scary part is that I doubt if most of us really do that very often, if ever.  I’m working on it.  I really am.  I want to be that person.  I want to lay it all down, pick up my cross and follow Jesus with reckless abandon.  I want to be a warrior for Christ, never thinking about my own safety or comfort but simply donning my armor and leading the charge for Christ in any way He asks.  I want to be sold out enough that I don’t care at all what others might think or how odd they may see me.  I want to listen to the voice of God and rush to His side in battle whether my wife understands it or not….whether my kids cry because I’m leaving or cheer because they love their daddy for his willingness to stand for God.  I want that.  Honest. 

            But I fall short way more often than I succeed.  More often than not, I get fearful about tithing my income, wondering if we can pay the bills that month.  I pray for God to lead me to wherever He leads yet I worry that, if I follow, it might cause problems with my marriage or family.  I would love to be willing to sell all I have, make it simple, and live on faith alone, ministering wherever God takes my family.  Yet….at the same time, I want to stay comfortable…..desiring a nice house and yard for my kids and the safety of a sure paycheck.  So, am I submitted?

            Recently, when the “every knee shall bow…” scripture was being preached on, I wrote on my bulletin, “we will ALL submit to God at some point.  Either now by choice or later, when we’re forced to”.  That was my “aha” moment.  In that instant I realized that EVERYONE will totally submit to God.  Now, we can choose to do so in this life and experience the great adventures God has for us, filled with joy and suffering and hardship and exultation.  Or, we can put it off.  We can either be hostile to the Lord as atheists or skeptics or we can be pew-sitting believers, knowing a lot about God but denying His power in our life.  We can choose to be mediocre in our submission; not evil overtly but insisting that WE (not God) maintain control of our lives and hope that God will bless us and that life never gets too tough or that He never asks us to do something uncomfortable, like go on the mission field or even go downtown to feed the homeless.  But, if we really believe the scripture (“EVERY knee shall bow) then why would we wait?  Why would we put God’s word to the test, almost tempting Him to break us?  If our joy is designed to be AHEAD of us instead of in this life, if our comforts lie in heaven, not in America, if our hurt and pain can only be completely ceased when we join God in eternal bliss, then why are we so concerned about staying comfortable here?  Why won’t we trust that we can lay it all down at the feet of God and that HE will know what is best for us, whether it is comfortable or not? 

            I suppose that is part of what scripture means when it says the road to eternal life is a narrow one.  Few actually follow it.  And isn’t that true?  I mean, honestly, I’m not presuming to know who is saved and who is not.  By no means.  But I am saying that I’ve been in the church for my entire life and I have seen relatively few who seemed to be truly submitted to anything Christ wanted.  Including myself.

            But there is a remnant.  Recently, I have noticed that I’ve run across a few believers who are striving to be those warriors.  These are men and women who are walking the road to total submission even if they haven’t arrived.  And I, myself, am trying to join them.  It’s certainly not easy.   I find submission incredibly difficult on a daily basis.  Just when I believe I have laid it all down, I seem to notice that I’ve picked something back up again.  But I keep taking steps down that road, hoping that I’ll know what it means to actually submit, walk with Him, and be that warrior. 

            Wouldn’t you like to be that kind of Christian?  Powerful?  Dangerous?  Humble?  SUBMITTED?  I know I would……after all, we’re all going to submit someday……why not now?

Aaron Welch is a licensed mental health counselor, nationally certified counselor and certified sex offender treatment specialist.  He strives to fight for the hearts of his clients and empower them to build a legacy that impacts the world.  He is part of a team of experts at “The Llifeworks Group, Inc”.  For more information about Aaron or Lifeworks, please visit www.lifeworksgroup.org or www.legacycounselingservices.org