Submission
I was reviewing my insurance package the other day and I came across a standard clause that has been in each and every packet ever delivered to me. It struck me differently this time as I read it and I thought of how this statement related to people in general and Christians specifically.
"The patient shall be an active member in determining the best course of health care and cooperate with their physician in prevention and maintenance of their health."
The first part of that statement told me that I have a choice. I have rights and I can refuse treatment. The second part became obvious to me only after I witnessed a pulmonary specialist refused to serve a patient who repeatedly ignored the doctor’s warnings to quit smoking. When I got to thinking about it, the doctor had every right to withhold service. There was nothing he could do to prevent the course of self-willed destruction his patient had chosen. Eventually, with cumulative evidence, the insurance company could even refuse to pay for any procedure which is the result of the patient being uncooperative in prevention and maintenance of their own health.
Do you know someone who has made bad life choices? Do you see them throwing their life away in pursuit of a destructive lifestyle? Do you want to help them? Have you tried and failed? Are you like the physician and ready to throw up your hands and walk away?
If you have tried to help and feel guilty for giving up or for wanting to give up, don’t. It’s not your fault.
No person can be helped unless they submit themselves to another person’s authority. It doesn’t matter how much training, experience or expertise you have in helping, if they do not submit themselves, they cannot be helped.
It is the same with Christians, in that Jesus cannot be your Savior until He becomes your Lord. If you do not submit to His authority, making Him the Lord of your life, He can do nothing to save you. In submitting yourself to His rule and reign over your life, you will be asked to be cooperative. In the same way a doctor prescribes medicines, Jesus will prescribe life-giving instructions.
James 1
22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
John 14
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
The big one difference is that, unlike the doctor, Jesus will never leave you.
Deuteronomy 31
6 Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
8 And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.