Daily Nuggets of Grace Part 7: Fruitful! Exemplo

Submit to God

We’ve stopped, reset, abided, and rested. Now it's time to submit. One thing is sure to hinder God's grace within us to bear fruit. It's flimsy and puny, but it's no small thing.

It's pride.

We bounce between pride’s two sides. When we're winning, we think, "God, you're super-lucky I'm here; prove Yourself to me." When losing, we believe, "I've made such a mess of this; God couldn't fix it even if He wanted to." Both sides are inherently prideful. One minute, we think we know best; the next, we are convinced even God can't make things better.

For our paths to be straight, we need to submit to the Lord, trust Him, and lean not on our understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6). Even Jesus said He could do nothing on His own (John 5:30). Fundamentally, it's a spiritual battle.

When we submit to God and resist the devil, Satan flees from us (James 4:7). The original word for submit, hugotasso, comes from two words: "to arrange" and "under." It means arranging everything under a higher authority, like a General on a battlefield.

But the world, our flesh, and the devil constantly conspire to stop us from submitting. They whisper lies: "Did God really say that?" "Tell Him to prove himself to you," "You've got this; you don't need God's Word."

Jesus experienced temptation like this. He won because He knew His weapon - the Word of God - and fully embraced that God's ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55).

Hot-headed Peter discovered this after he tried to rebuke Jesus. Jesus' response was extreme, "Get behind me, Satan!" (Matthew 16:23). Peter eventually understood the meaning of this rebuke. When writing his first letter, he finishes by encouraging both "elders" and "youngsters" to be humble under the mighty hand of God.

Submission, the opposite of pride, is the only way to resist the devil, who is prowling around wanting to devour us (1 Peter 5).

Reflect and Respond

God invites you to trust Him. He knows it can be challenging, but He gives grace to the humble. Is there an area of your life in which you have tried to keep control? What stops you from submitting that area of your life to God?

Pray

Lord, I repent of my pride. I've thought too highly of myself and I've thought too lowly of You. I choose to trust You and lean not on my own understanding. Amen.