SUBMISSION

by Gittel Fruma

God has been teaching me some powerful truth. It’s life-changing and liberating. It’s simple and impossible without God. It’s the beginning of restoration and the realization of God’s promises in my life.

My submission has nothing to do with anyone else.

Did you catch that? I didn’t on the first pass. But I’m starting to. It’s creating a tsunami in my walk with God.

As a woman, a wife, a member of Church leadership, a daughter, a follower of Jesus (the list goes on, but let’s end here), submission is a way of life for me. I am commanded by God in nearly every area of my life to submit to other humans. The order of said submission is sometimes blurry. The hierarchy I submit to is occasionally out-of-order. However, human authority itself is ceaselessly relevant in my daily life.

Submission has meant many things to me, but what has marked my journey into submission more than anything else is frustration. Frustration that I cannot make all my own decisions. Frustration that although I’m an intelligent, capable person whose skills are readily called upon; I am not the boss. Frustration that no matter how I try, I never seem to be submitting well enough or properly enough or often enough.

You see, I’m not very good at submitting at all.

Without getting into the finer details of my childhood, let’s just say surrender was never my strong suit. Never. Could I meet expectations to further my own agenda? Yes. Oh, I excelled at that. I was also a master of quiet rebellion and a Machiavellian manipulator. But submission? The action of yielding to the will of another person? Absolutely not.

Do you see my conundrum? I have submitted to authority to get around it. How do I learn to yield? As my sister and I would say, with all the sincerity in the world, “You slap some Jesus on that.”

Submit yourselves therefore to God.–James 4:7a ESV

Let me back it up a few books to show you just what an “aha!” moment this should not have been for a Jew who grew up in Hebrew school.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.–Exodus 20:2-3 ESV

The Jew within me scolds myself, “Were you paying any attention in synagogue?!”

It’s so simple, friends. When I submit to the Holy Spirit, when I truly surrender to what He tells me to do, I am not in submission to man. I am in submission to God.

Don’t fret! It’s not heresy.

True submission is the seamless intermingling of several profound truths: I am an undeserving sinner. God’s grace saves me when I accept that Jesus died for my sins. I deserve nothing and have no qualifications to lead my own life. Without God’s wisdom and direction, I have no chance of doing what I ought. Yet, I will give an account to God for my days. All I thought, spoke, and did will appear before the courts of heaven. I will give an account for it. I am responsible for me regardless of what was occurring around me while I thought, said, and did. There will be a reckoning. There will be no excuses. Jesus’ blood will cover my sins. The point at which I start in heaven will never be moved. I cannot redo my entry into eternity. Bearing all that in mind, I am aware of one obvious thing.

I better slap some Jesus on that.

If I live my life in submission to the Holy Spirit, I will rightly submit to everyone in my life as I ought to. Furthermore, when things go wrong in my life, I can rest in knowing God has my back, and I did what I was supposed to do. Not to mention, it lifts a huge burden in my relationships with those in authority around me. It allows me to see them more as people, less like taskmasters. God is my master. God is their master. My mastery of this life is dependent on my submission to Him. The same is true of my earthly “masters,” so to speak. We’re all in this together. Blame becomes less important. Guilt becomes a thing of the past. Feelings become immaterial.

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.–Ephesians 5:22 ESV

Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eyeservice, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.–Colossians 3:22-24 ESV

Submission to God leads to submission to men where it is right. Submission also leads to right authority over men. It may force you to pick things up that you had let go of out of comfort or convenience. Submitting to the Holy Spirit isn’t easy, but it’s life-giving.

Furthermore, if I am in submission to the Holy Spirit, my feelings hold no sway over me. Why would I listen to my feelings, which often have no basis in fact, if I can hear the voice of God? I am done with my feelings. I say goodbye to them and their accompanying rollercoasters with nary a qualm.

When the Spirit of Truth is leading me in all righteousness, it doesn’t matter what feelings I have. They are rendered inactive by the power of His sovereignty. The actions of others have little effect on mine. Feelings become significantly less ascendant in light of all the above. Who even invited feelings?

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?–Jeremiah 17:9

I don’t know about you, but I don’t need that kind of negativity in my life. I’m in a world of chaos. My life seems to be constructed on minutiae. The more I listen, the clearer it all gets. Will I still mess up? Yes. Welcome to humanity. It’s messy. There’s only one ticket out. You’d better be ready for a heart-to-heart when you leave, so let’s start the conversation now. Who better to teach You than the Master Himself?

When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come.–John 16:13 ESV

Choose I a burden? With delight, I do. This cross is mine to bear, and with Him, my load is light.

Gittel Fruma came to believe in Jesus after growing up as an Orthodox Jew. Gittel lives with her husband and son in Clearwater, Florida. She is currently working on a book about her testimony and recording her first album. You can find her at her website GittelFruma.com or on Facebook at @GittelFrumaMusic.