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| <~~~ BACK blesses us. He�s not going to let us be less than ourselves or trampled upon because we follow His commands. In learning to submit to God, we first need to learn to come near Him (v.8). As has often been said, God is a gentleman. He doesn�t force Himself on anybody. You have the first move. How do you make that first move? A good beginning is to stop coming to God only when you want something. Imagine if you had a friend or mate who only wanted to talk to you when they wanted something. That�s not a good relationship. Instead, talk (pray) to God throughout your day. Thank Him for your blessings, thank Him for His love. Praise Him. Ask Him to guide you. But prayer isn�t even enough. We also need to read, study, and contemplate the Bible�daily. I�ve heard some folks say, �Oh, I�ve read the Bible; I don�t need to read it again.� Yet people study the Bible all their lives and never know all there is to know about it! (Ask any Bible scholar.) More than that, God tells us to read His word (1 Pet. 2:2, Job 23:12). In all honesty, there will probably be days when you pick up your Bible and are bored to tears. And there will be days when reading the Word makes your heart race with enthusiasm. In the beginning, most days will probably be somewhere in between. But whatever the case, the Bible is God�s instruction book. It�s the �bit� for our mouths. (See the previous issue of Share Agape for more on that �bit.�) Without reading the Bible daily, we lack proper nutrition. It�s kinda like this: Children usually need to be coaxed to eat vegetables, but eventually they learn to eat them because they know veggies are good for them. Similarly, �young� Christians sometimes need to force themselves to get their daily Biblical nutrition. Later, their hunger for daily nutrition will come naturally, and they�ll even start to look forward to it. There is one more�very vital�part to learning to submit to God and know His will. �Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up� (v8�10). In other words: Repent. Repent (like �submit�) is a word that in recent times has developed a bad reputation. But all repent really means is �to feel regret, apologize, and turn away from wrongdoing.� I think if you�re honest with yourself, you�ll find that you already feel regret about stuff you do in your life. So why not �take it to the Lord?� That�s what He�s there for. In fact, that�s what He asks us to do, and what He�ll reward us abundantly for doing. Start by confessing (which really just means admitting what you�ve done). Then admit to God that you�re sorry for what you did. Finally, ask God to forgive you, which means He will completely forgive and release you from what you�ve done. If you still hesitate to do this whole submission thing, I encourage you to just try it for two or three days. (After all, how can you criticized it unless you�ve tried it?) You can start with a simple prayer. It might go something like this: �Lord, I admit that I�m hesitant to submit to You. Something inside me wants to rebel against it. But I know that You�ve commanded me to love and submit to You and to others, and I want to obey You. So, even though part of me is fighting this, I�m humbling myself before you. I admit that I�ve done wrong. [Tell Him specifics here.] I�m so sorry for doing these things, Lord. Please forgive me of those sins, and please help me to submit to You fully, so that I can learn Your will for my life, and develop a close, meaningful relationship with You.� And now for this week�s recommendation. I don�t mind telling you I had a heck of a time trying to find something related to submission to God. This is not a topic very many people are willing to write or speak about! However, I did find a little gem�a sound clip only one minute long�that talks about the importance of submission. You�ll find it on this page, highlighted in yellow: http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/desiring_god/archives.asp?highlight=5/11/2003 You may either listen to it online (great if you have a fast Internet connection), or download it onto your computer and listen to it offline (better if you connect to the Internet via telephone line). Questions Q: �Okay, how do you explain the two different Biblical accounts of Judas� death?� A: Mathew 27:5 tells us that Judas, full of remorse, hung himself. Acts 1:18 says: �Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.� Upon a first reading, these two verses might appear to contradict themselves, but in this case (as with many other Bible �contradictions�), the resolution is simple and logical: Both verses are true. The 30 pieces of silver Judas received for betraying Jesus was used to buy a field (or a grave plot). In remorse, Judas hung himself, and when his body began to rot, it fell from the rope and burst open. It certainly isn�t likely that Judas� living body was one moment perfectly fine, and the next moment bursting open. And if Judas fell when he was still alive, he�d have to fall from a very MORE ~~~> |
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