As we grow up and life changes, there’s still a part of us that looks back to when we were without much responsibility, and to think to those times as the ‘good old days.’
We tend to think that once we pass a certain age into adulthood, those innocent days are over. We envy little children that don’t seem to have a care in the world and secretly wish we could still be like them.
But the good news is: you can! While lifestyles change and responsibility increases, the freedom and carefree mindset is not a hopeless dream. It is reality if we are willing to pay the price. And what price is that? The price of being willing to submit.
There’s Beauty in Submitting
Submission. That word tends to make us instantly put up walls and act like we didn’t hear it when it gets mentioned. Yet in that simple word lies the power to make our lives an adventure far beyond what we ever dreamed possible!
Were you ever amazed at how awe-striking the sky is on a clear night? Has it occurred to you that the stars are simply following instructions from God? They stay in the spot where they were placed, and it is there that they have the power to intrigue us.
When humanity is left to itself, nothing good ever comes out of it. There is no radiance or beauty because it isn’t shown how to be beautiful. It is when something flows according to pattern that we become ‘wowed’ by it.
We Need to be Taught
We will never learn anything in life if we aren’t willing to be taught. As much as we may not believe in submitting to someone, we do it every time we learn something new. Humanity cannot learn something without letting someone else teach us.
When we learned how to read, we first had to let someone teach us. Even if it looked like a bother at the moment, we will benefit from it for the rest of our lives. A whole new world of freedom opened for us because we allowed ourselves to be taught.
That concept is true with other areas of life. If we are willing to put ourselves under the ‘teacher’ of life, only God knows what will come out of it!
Hebrews 12:9-10 says, “Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.”
Freedom Comes With Submission
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7
When we follow instructions for something, everything fits together perfectly. Like this verse indicates, we are first instructed to submit to God. What follows then is a beautiful promise.
There is so much bondage when the enemy can do whatever he pleases in our lives. Isn’t submission to God worth it to have the power to resist the enemy? We aren’t told here to submit to God so that our lives would be miserable. But rather, so that we could be free from what is making us miserable.
There is danger when we wonder off the path and go where the ‘no trespassing’ signs are posted. Those signs are there to keep us safe, not to make our lives less exciting. The greatest adventure comes through obedience. When we are willing to obey even when there doesn’t seem to be sense in it, there comes a freedom that we wouldn’t have otherwise.
When we’re under authority, we actually gain authority. Think about something like a business: someone is put in authority only after they learned how to submit to it.
Healthy submission can change your life if you’re willing to let it. I never would’ve thought that at my age I could be as happy and carefree as I am now.
I challenge you to ask God to help you. Don’t try to do it all by yourself. Before anything else, we need to submit to God and allow Him to work in us. He didn’t create order and authority to make us miserable. But instead He placed it in our lives for our good and His glory.
