Sermon Sunday: Submission

I bet the guys out there that read this (if there are any!!) got excited when they saw the title of today's blog.  Usually when I hear the word submit in terms of the Bible I think of the wives duty to the husband.  Not today men, simmer down!  We need a national revival.  In order for that to happen, though, we must each have a revival in our own lives.  This has been ever present in my daily quite times with a book called, "Fresh Encounter".  River Hills did this study as a church on Sunday nights last fall, but with a newborn and going back to teaching it was just too much for me to go through (what an excuse!).  So I decided to pick up my copy from the library and do it on my own this summer.  It has been a great spiritual awakening for me.  There are so many aspects of my life and what I see in my family that I wish I could change, and I have realized that in order for any change to come about in my family, I must be right with the Lord and my own walk before I can expect any reformation elsewhere.  This morning in Bill's message, the Holy Spirit put that on my heart again.  Last week we talked about worldliness and how it is ever present in this world.  You can not get away from it no matter how hard you try.  Well, I guess if you hid under your covers or a random rock you might.  There are 3 things that you must do in your life as a Christian to have "the cure".

1. Submit your entire self to God.  All areas of your life.  This is where I held back for a long time.  Some of you may know that I battled self image weight issues when I was in high school, which poured over into my college and even the beginning of my marriage.  I was involved in FCA, went to church, leader in the youth group, attempted to sing at church with mom, did daily quiet times, memorized (some) scriptures, and tried hard to avoid peer pressure.  The one thing I wanted control over was my weight.  It started out innocent and loosing a few pounds of baby weight that needed to go.  Then it led to a little more running and a little less eating.  Then a lot more running and a lot less eating.  This was what they call anorexia.  I started to get depressed and isolate myself.  My grades started slipping and I fell out of touch with many of my friends.  Then I decided to try eating a little more because I knew I looked horrible.  Well, that just led to a battle with bulimia until I was married.  I fought for years with the Lord and my weight issues and wanting to be in control.  The whole time I had trouble with many aspects of my life.   After we were married it was just watching closely to what I ate and running every single day no matter what.  One day the Holy Spirit really got a hold of me during quite time and said, "Lauren, let go of the weight issue!  I am in control."  So I did.  Just like that.  Don't get me wrong, I still battle with eating healthy because that is what I taught myself to do for 10 years.  I think it is important, too, to be active and be self controlled when it comes to eating.  But I do not stress out like I use to.  I have finally come to terms with, "As long as I feel good, I feel alive, and I am healthy, it doesn't matter."  I think I will always love to run, but I try to balance that with life and not make life all about running anymore.  Once I did that, many things in our life came together and the best part is that I am at peace with the Lord and what He says.  When you submit to the Lord, you must refuse sin.  Fight it with every being of your heart.  Do not give in to the devil who is very much real!
2. Cleanse your hands and your heart.  Again, submit your hands and heart to the Lord.  If there is ANY sin in your life that is keeping distance between you and the Lord, deal with it.  So much of above came to the forefront of my mind when he said this.  Me being in "control" was really holding me back from being fully His.  A verse that came to mind was Ps. 139:23.  I memorized it when I was in college and it says, "Search me o' God and know my heart, try me and know my anxieties..."  This is my daily prayer.  He knows our hearts and our hands reflect what is in our hearts.  What are your hands showing?
3. Get humble before the Lord.  Submit!  This spoke volumes to me.  Bill said, "Be a little servant of an illustrious Master."  Amen.  Humble yourself.  If God is calling you somewhere, follow.  If He is telling you to do something, do.  If He is telling you to cry out to Him for help, lean on Him.  "When you get on your knees before the Master, it is the only way you will get on your feet."

Last thing that I found quite entertaining: "When we get away from God, we tend to talk about other people and meddle in their business."  Self check: who did you talk about today?