submission and obedience

James 4:7 "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you."

Apparently the Lord wants me to learn obedience and submission. Over the last few years God has taught me that these two words aren't bad. They are godly and describe a person who is in communion with the Lord.

For a long time I've known that I don't love others the way God does. I really appreciated the Forgiveness exercise from the Thin Within book, because it helped to teach me to do a godly, commanded exercise that I didn't "feel" like doing. I can chose to do the things God commands me to, or leads me to, because I want to be obedient and submissive to him.

One of the beautiful things that has come out of learning about Islam is that the name of their very belief system means "submission". Of course, I wish they knew the hope of grace in Christ Jesus that empowers believers to live a godly life, but I also wish that we, as believers in Christ, focused more on the freedom that comes through submission.

The teaching pastors at my church have been going through a series about prayer. Today the focus was on answered prayer. One of my main prayers right now is freedom from gluttony and food/body idolatry. The Lord has been so good to me over these last several months, yet in my refusal to submit to Him at times, I have foiled my own hope of freedom.

Our pastor posed the question, "Are you trying to answer your own prayer?"

Am I praying to God, saying that I am expectant of Him, but doing the best to try to solve it myself? Am I feigning submission?

Lord, help me to be submissive to you. Only then will I be able to resist my flesh, the word, and the lies of Satan. It is very possible that I will always have inappropriate desires for food, but I pray that in Your strength, I will be able to choose You instead. Lord, truly, my desire is to be so liberated from food that i don't think about it nor am I interested in it unless I'm hungry. I don't know if that is what you'll have for me, but I know that You have done greater things than this. Amen.