Quitting is not Submitting

One of the common issues brought up in premarital counseling is submission, based on the teachings of the apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:22, "Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord." The first part about submitting "to husbands" is NOT what this particular blog post is about, although the "as you do to the Lord" ending is front and center. In the typical 21^st century Western culture counseling session, the meaning of submit gets dissected in accordance with the politically correct feminist movement to assure the bride and warn the groom that "telling her to submit herself" is not the same as "giving him license to rule and control." Parse that as you will, verse 23 continues, "For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church," and we know that Jesus permits the church a whopping lot of wiggle room when it comes to free will. We usually call this 'mercy' in the end.

For the purposes of this blog post, we are going to leave it at this: That passage from Ephesians 5 is Paul's inspired teaching on how to keep one's homelife from becoming the victim of a two-headed monster; God holds the man responsible for making decisions in the best interest of his wife, and the wife doesn't give him flak when he does.

With that out of the way, we are moving on to "submission unto the Lord." One of the first things to realize is that God is not a hypocrite. He is not asking us humans for something that Jesus wasn't willing to do. As of today, the most recent Easter was ten months ago, and the Lent/Easter season is when many Read-through-the-Bible programs schedule the study of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. If you aren't familiar with that part of the gospel or if it isn't fresh in your mind, you may want to read Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14:32-42, and Luke 22:39-46 to get the full context. This was the night before the crucifixion, and Jesus' prayer at that time was recorded in each of these three books:

Matthew: He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (26:42)
Mark: “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (14:36)
Luke: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (22:42)

Jesus was in agony, overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Luke further adds that an angel came and ministered to Him at this time, but even so, his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

As a little kid in Sunday school, this was taught to me as Jesus "being afraid" of what was going to happen. I was (somehow) supposed to take comfort in the idea that Jesus could be afraid too.

Hogwash!

That is not what happened. Fear destroys faith, and Full-Bore Faith was necessary for Jesus to defeat Satan.  Bloody sweat is what a fearless faith battle for all creation looks like. It is clear from the text of His prayer that Jesus could have made a different choice. Bloody sweat is what submission to the Father's will looks like. Jesus made the choice to submit to God and walk out His Father's plan by faith in what His Father had told Him.

If KatieLyn and her family are living under the illusion that doing God's will has to be accompanied by bluebirds, budding flowers, and a Disney Princess song, then they need to get real.  Jesus chose to be smack dab in the center of His Father's will and it was the worst day of his life!   Considering Jesus' choice to follow His Father's plan for His life puts a whole new facet on the "Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6) concept.  The entire verse is: And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Those rewards for those who earnestly seek God's plan in life are seen on the front end only through eyes of faith.  As long as one trusts in the eyes of their own reasoning, they are at high risk of missing any glimpse of reward.

If Jesus had quit, if He had given up and decided that there was no visible reward in being beaten and hanging on a cross, if He had chosen to doubt that it would work out in the long run, Satan would have claimed the victory. Or what if Jesus had been too proud to go to the cross? After all, a crucifixion is no place for the Son of God, is it?  Not if you are walking by sight, it isn't! Doubt and pride are a deadly combination.

The Lesson
Quitting by running home in the middle of the night was not submitting to God's will. KatieLyn failed her Gethsemane experience test. She knew better. She had heard God. But the enemy is crafty. He knew her weakness. He orchestrated things to affect her so that she'd be overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all that she faltered on the "do it" step. One little step that the Lord asked her to take, and she did not have the faith to take it. She had no faith in God. She had more faith in her mother's doubts. Running away is not walking by faith. For KatieLyn, running many steps away from her answered prayer was easier than taking one step toward it.

Submission isn't easy.