Joe Kennedy’s list of bloggers blogging the Spiritual Disciplines.

Submission.

Well, I don’t know anybody who is really good at this. We all have a bent toward our own selfish motives. It’s the sin in us that desires that we have what we want at the exclusion of what everyone else wants and even what God wants.

The role model for us in the is Christ, obviously. Phil. 2 tells us of all He gave away in order to do the will of the Father. Do remember that His life and sacrifice were acts of submission. It is poorly put to say that “Jesus died for us.”

Let me clarify that, so that you don’t freak out and miss the point. He loves us, His sacrifice was in order to accomplish the propitiation of sins, but His life, death and resurrection wasn’t done with us at the center of His mind and heart, but with the Father at the center. To do His will. To submit.

I know, that deserves some more unpacking, but let’s save that for another day, shall we? Suffice it today that we remember the Garden where Jesus asked that the cup of sacrifice pass from Him, if possible, nevertheless, not His will, but the Father’s be done.

Submission.

For us it must be first to the Father. Without submission to Him, submission to others is impossible.

I equate that to the writing of a blank check. Sign it and turn it over, saying, “Fill it in and cash it, Lord.” In other words, you commit before His asking, that whatever He asks, you will do. Your agreement to do what He asks is not dependent in any way on what He asks.

Being submitted to the Father gives us the humble heart we need to submit to others in leadership over us.

The flip side of this, as alluded to earlier, is rebellion. The prideful, self centered heart, that only sees things for how they will relate to self.

Have you ever known a person that never does anything wrong? They get fired from every job they have because the manager is an idiot and won’t listen. They struggle with friendships because their friends inevitably do something or need something that costs them, and that’s not why they are around, in their mind.

Ever know anyone like that?

Ever BEEN anyone like that?

I have.

Sometimes, I still am.

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