Living Life With A Purpose: Single & Submitted

The Lord led me to write this blog and I was hesitant at first because it's not a topic that most people want to hear about. My prayer is that through this post you will be able to see that submission is not just for married folks and that God requires us, as Christ followers, to submit to Him in every season of our lives. I am a firm believer that if The God of the universe has every single day of our lives written in His book, then He cares about every aspect of our lives. He cares about where we live, what job we work at, what school we attend, who we decide to marry, what state we live in, what church we go to, etc.

"You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed."
Psalm 139:16

Let's look at the definition of submission:

Submission- To yield to authority or be accountable to another; To get under the mission

Recently I was talking to someone about a decision I was preparing to make and said "Who gonna check me? It's not like I'm married or anything." We laughed and parted our separate ways. Later when I was spending time with God, He brought that incident back to my attention and said "I will, if you let me." Boom! Talk about conviction! It was then that God started to break down submission to me in a totally different light. He wants me to submit to and seek Him about all things, not just some. That it's way more than my outward actions and decisions it starts with my heart. Once I give The Lord my heart everything else follows, but a lot of times I go back and forth trying to hold onto my "independence." With all the distractions of this world, it's easy to forget that first and foremost I am God's and that He delights in every little detail of my life. There is no such thing as a small decision in the eyes of God, it's all important to Him.

The Lord directs the steps of the godly.
He delights in every detail of their lives.

Psalm 37:23

In order for The Lord to direct my steps, I have to first be fully surrendered to Him. I can't try to hold onto a part of my life and give Him 95%. God deserves and requires all of me; my time, my talents, my gifts, my mind, my heart and my life. It's then that I started to realize how rebellious I can be, at times. How a lot of times I may look like on the outside I am truly trusting and following God, but on the inside my heart isn't in it; I'm just going through the motions. Or the times that He tells me to do something and I do, but not after I try it my way first or get an attitude about it.

Sometimes it's not that we don't obey God, but that our hearts aren't in the right position when we do so. We follow God's instructions, but we do so grudgingly and not from a pure place. What we must remember is that God looks at our hearts and can see what others cannot. You can fool man with your religious activity, but not God. So if you obey Him but it's more out of obligation and not true devotion then it doesn't count.

"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."
Matthew 15:8

"...The LORD doesn't see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
1 Samuel 16:7

We can't hide from God. We are talking about the same God that knows our thoughts before we even think them. If we evaluate our lives, many of you would see just how easy it is to do our own thing and completely leave out God. I don't think anyone has to teach us to want to defy authority. For most, it's a part of being born into sin as children. We don't want anyone telling us to do because that takes away our independence. We want to do what we want, when we want, and how we want. Well the thing is, when you choose to become a Christian, your life is no longer your own.

"And He was saying to them all, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me'."

Luke 9:23

You cannot do your own thing and follow God. To better illustrate this, during my quiet time one morning, The Lord led me to read Ephesians 5:24, which reads

"As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in EVERYTHING."

The Lord put a huge emphasis on the EVERYTHING part of the scripture for me. You may read that passage of Scripture and say well that is great but I'm not married. No, you may not be married to an earthly being, but you are a bride of The Lord. The same way that the church is supposed to submit and complete the mission of the Lord, is the same way that as single women we should be getting under His mission as well. We exist to bring God glory and honor in every stage of life.

"For your Creator will be your husband, the LORD of Heaven's Armies is His name! He is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth."

Isaiah 54:5

For those of you who desire to be married, if you cannot submit to God, who is perfect, how do you expect to submit to a man, who is imperfect? Submission starts right now, not when you say "I do." If you can't be obedient to Him now, it will not automatically change once you get a ring. Submitting to God now will make your life a lot easier once you are married (*advice from my married friends). How many times has God brought something to our attention about issues in our lives and we ignored it? How many times has God instructed us to do something and we deliberately did the opposite or took forever to complete the assignment? How many times has God instructed us to say something to someone and we tell ourselves I'll just say it tomorrow? What makes us think that we can do it on our timetable instead of The Sovereign Lord's? Yet we claim that we are His people, ambassadors, and His friend. When is the last time you saw a clay pot telling the potter, no? The Bible says,

"For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."
Ephesians 2:10

You see God has things for us to do right now. God has a purpose for giving us instructions at a particular time. It's prideful and foolish for us to think that we can place what The Lord has instructed us on a shelf and do it at a more convenient time for us. Even as I sit here and write this, 2 months later then when God instructed me to, I can't help but be thankful for His mercy. I recognize that my obedience isn't for me, it's for someone else. That God has chosen me to be a vessel in His kingdom, which is a privilege not a right.

God has given us free will to do as we please, because He wants us to willingly desire and submit to His Will. He isn't going to force us to choose His way. Either we obey & submit ourselves to Him, which puts us in position for us to receive His best, or we do not. It's our pride and self-sufficiency that gets us in trouble. The world is constantly telling us that we can be whatever we want to be and do whatever we want to do but as Christians there are certain assignments that God has called us to complete. It doesn't matter if it was my dream to be a rock star and travel the world, He knows best and I would rather be inside of His will with Him, then to be doing my own thing without Him. There is safety inside of His will, there is peace inside of His Will, and there is joy inside of His will. The Lord's way is always better and as we grow in Him, the more we see this.

Although I have a desire to get to a point where I am obedient and submitted at all times to God, I fail daily and I'm thankful for His Word and promises! I realize that this walk with Christ is a journey and as long as I am seeking after Him, everything else will fall into place.

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

Philippians 1:6

Until next time,

Cierra

xoxo