How do you submit to the Lord?

How do you live in submission to the Lord?

James 4:7-10 has the answer; “(7) Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (8) Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (9) Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. (10) Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” (NIV)

James gives us five elements for how to live life in submission to the Lord.

First, you must make an initial submission to Him! The word translated “submit” is often translated by “be subject too,” or “be subordinate too.” You subordinate yourself to the Lord. That means you make him primary in your life and you come under his authority.

The concept in Romans 10:9 is important: “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (NIV) Submission begins with confessing Jesus is your Lord, or your supreme authority. You’re affirming verbally you’re in submission to his authority! This is like a pledge of allegiance to Jesus as Lord! So, initial submission involves verbally confessing you’re under submission to Jesus as Lord.

This same concept goes all the way back to Proverbs 3:6: “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” (NIV) When you confess Jesus as Lord you’re acknowledging his ownership and rule over all the ways of your life!

It’s much like offering yourself to the Lord on the altar! I don’t know about you, but I keep crawling off the altar and I find that I’m required to re-confess to get myself back on the altar! I do that intentionally every morning but find it necessary to hit the confession button repeatedly throughout the day!

Second, James tells us we must resist the devil and he will flee from us. Living in submission means I must do battle with the enemy and resist the devil. Remember we’re daily involved in a battle for who will rule over us, and it requires resisting the devil! He wants to rule us and must be resisted!

Remember he tempted Jesus with lies by twisting scripture! Jesus had to resist by shooting back with scripture in proper context. After three attempts and counter-shots from Jesus the devil left him alone and angels ministered to Jesus! It’s best to shoot back with scripture properly applied and the devil will flee! To counter his attacks well you must know the scripture well. I’ve been in the word for close to half a century daily with few exceptions and still have a way to go! Study that Bible!

The third element of living in submission to the Lord is to come near to God and He will come near to you! You may have heard the old saying, “if you fell far from God, guess who moved!” God is always and eternally available to be close to us, but we must come near Him. When we pull up next to God, he closes the gap and is close to us! Every time I see my grandkids, they come over to me and I give them a hug! When they come near to me, I come near to them and I always will! God does the same thing with us! When we live close to Him, he gets close to us!

How do you live close to God? Listen to Him in the Bible, talk to Him in prayer and continually acknowledge He is present with you in the Person of the Holy Spirit. You’re never alone! If you forget, you might shoot up a quick prayer, “God, thanks for being with me today!”

The fourth element of living in submission to the Lord is to live in repentance! In verses 8b and 9 James talks about washing your hands you sinners, purifying your hearts and grieving, mourning and wailing! He mentions changing laughter to mourning and joy to gloom. He’s talking about how to respond to our sin. He’s talking about doing an about face when we drop off into sin and getting away from it!

Sin will always mess up living in submission to the Lord, when it afflicts you turn from it in repentance! When you do you will experience grace, forgiveness and a close relationship with the Lord and resume that life lived in submission to the Lord!

The fifth element involved in living in submission to the Lord is to humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up! We’re always in need of Him, calling us to humility before Him and when we’re humble, he will lift us up!

In 1976 I was involved in a youth ministry in Los Angeles County. A 17-year-old boy came into my office one day to challenge me about a Biblical faith. He was bright and was into some literature called “Chariots of the Gods.” He had several reasons why he thought his way made sense and was challenging me about the Bible.

I asked, “have you read the Bible?” His answer was “no.” I asked “why?” He said, “I don’t have one.” I had a shelf full of New Testaments to give away and reached for one and gave it to him saying, “read it and tell me what you think.”

He came back about a month later carrying the New Testament I had given him. I noted it was a bit dog-eared! He hung his head with his hair covering his face as I asked, “what did you think about the Bible?” He was quiet and I just let him figure out what to say as he hung his head.

When he lifted his head, tears were running down his face and he said, “I need Jesus!” That was the beginning of a life lived in submission to the Lord. It has been 43 years, but I feel certain he’s still living in submission to the Lord!

Live a life of submission to the Lord!