So Moses numbered them according to the word of the Lord, as he was commanded.

Submission, the dirty word!

Today I’m going to talk about the dirty word, submission! We expect it from our little ones or even those who work for us, but do we like to be obedient to others or in submission to them?

Submission sounds week right? Moses was in perfect submission to God he did exactly as God asked him to do, not distorting the requests. And he was very blessed because of it.

At Carmel City Church where I work, we run a Bible College, the first week can be really tough for a lot of students as the first course is titled ‘Obedience and Submission!’ (A great book to check out is Under Cover by John Bevere)  That sounds a little hard core right? I guess it is, and it should be!

The thing is, Jesus wants us to be hard core, he wants us to be hot, he wants us to be all in. If we can not learn how to obey and submit to God we are never going to make this faith and character stick.

I’ve just been reading the David Murrow book ‘The Map’ in it he points out that the Christian life for every man should be a 3 step course of 1. Submission. 2. Strength. 3. Sacrifice. When we come to Christ we need to learn how to take up His strength and let go of our own, only if we master this we can be strong enough to sacrifice for others in the way Jesus did.

The most important thing you can model to your child is character right? Godly character. Well the back bone to that character I believe is obedience, obedience to the one in authority over you. Ultimately that is what every parent wants for their child, for them to be obedient, so that when Daddy says stop, they stop running in to the road!

And so that when your 16 year old daughter wants to get in a car with what she thinks is a nice guy but in reality you know that he only wants one thing from her, she will have built that trust in her Father to obey when he says no!

We need our children to be obedient to us, for their safety, if they can not learn to obey and submit to the leading of their parent who only is looking out for them, they are headed for danger. The same is true for us adults and that is why at our Bible College we teach the course first!

It made me laugh when I searched for pictures on obedience all I found was dog training pictures

(This was a good one)

We can be so concerned about training others that we forget about training ourselves and so it can be with children.

Remember the golden rule your children will do as they see you do, not as you ask them to do and they see, if your not really obedient to your Boss, your Spouses wishes, your God, they will know the standard of your house and they will measure back to you the standard you have modelled to them.

So in the troubled times of teenage hood I am trusting that because of the character I am modelling to my little ones now, the issues won’t be anywhere near so big as they could be.

What about you? Do you realise that your lack of submission is storing up trouble? Rebellion?

Can you demonstrate it better in the way you submit to your Boss? Your Spouse? Your Government? Your God? Your own standards?

What will you change today to radically improve tomorrow’s tomorrow?