Thursday, December 10, 2009

The Simplest Things

Isn't it interesting how somehow the simplest things somehow become the most difficult things. James 4:7-8 reads like this: Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.

So easy, these verbs, to say, even to understand, but then there is the doing: submit, resist and flee, come near. And I wonder if the first is the hardest, the idea of submitting.

We hang on so fiercely to our rights, our will. We know what we want, and we reserve the right to demand it, to have it, regardless of what God might say in his word. Oh, we say we want God's will, but then we exhaust ourselves finding a way to rationalize what we want. As I write those words, three faces came to mind, three individuals who know what they want is wrong; in their hearts, they acknowledge that their will brings them in conflict with the Word. And they search for a way to explain away Scripture that calls their choices sin.

So this little word submit is really a big word demanding our attention, our concentration to search out what it really means for each of us. Is warfare involved here? My will against God's will? This thing I am struggling with, that I want or want to do, is it filling up the space between God and me, pushing me farther and farther away from him?

All of that in one little word - submit...an amazing conundrum. I must face the reality, the question: am I willing to trust God with my life in exchange for his presence and peace, or do I really just want to bull my way through life, at who knows what cost?

Remember those three people I mentioned earlier? They all chose their own will, and not one of them is happy.

No comments:

Post a Comment