Unconditional love leads to submissiveness

Aug 28, 2022 News

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==My Testimony==

By Sharmain Grainger

Kaieteur News – Depending on your state of mind, choosing to be submissive can either be one of the hardest or easiest things that you will ever do. This is owing to the fact that being submissive means that you are inclined or ready to yield to the authority or control of another.

Being able to achieve this only becomes possible after you would have learned, over time, to trust whomever you are willing to submit to.  As for me, I am only now beginning to learn the art of submission and it is turning out to be not so bad after all.

However, in the past, I met with rebellion any scenario that warranted me being submissive. But then, I had an encounter (maybe I can term it a supernatural one) with the only one (Jesus) capable of massaging submissive ways into me.

When you come to the realisation that there is someone who actually loves you more than you could ever love yourself, to that person, you can submit willingly, no questions asked. In fact, you develop a burning desire to avail yourself in every conceivable way to be used by that person because it is the only way you can possibly attempt to compensate, but yet, recompense just isn’t possible – not when you can recall, and quite vividly too, the horrible person (me) that He is even now helping to transform.

There simply aren’t descriptive words for me to accurately detail how Jesus, the love of my life, swooped in, of course miraculously, when I was at perhaps the lowest point of my life, literally showed me the way to redemption and has ever since been cleaning me up. That doesn’t make sense, right? But I can attest today, without fear of contradiction, that John 8:36 is an absolute biblical truth: “So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.”

With this freedom comes a desperate desire to see others have a similar experience; it’s as if you somehow evolve each time you profess to an unbeliever (or unstable believer) that Jesus is the true and living God. For this reason, I eagerly share about His goodness with whoever pays even the slightest of attention. And doing your part as a believer is of utmost importance since we weren’t merely rescued to have a happy life for eternity. We must help others along the way; the redeemed must help others see the importance of redemption.

According to Paul the Apostle, at 1 Corinthians 9:19: “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.”

He goes on to explain at 1 Corinthian 3:6-8: “⁶I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. ⁷It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. ⁸The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work.”

When you truly consider what it is to be redeemed, you are compelled to live a life pleasing in His sight. It doesn’t mean that you become perfect in all your ways, it means, however, that you are determined to see Him as your only source of help regardless of the struggles you may encounter. In so doing, you submit to His ways and can be easily guided to help reach souls that are yearning for Him too.

Can you dare conceptualise what Jesus did when He died on that cruel cross for our despicable transgressions?

According to the New Living Translation bible, which I try to absorb these days, “…He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed,” Isaiah 53:5.

Now why would anyone, especially someone who had no business facing condemnation, choose to suffer a humiliating death for an insignificant scrap of dirt like me? It is only the embodiment of absolutely pure love that can manage such a selfless act.

There might be some who would like to doubt that Jesus suffered and died for our sins, rose again and currently is sitting on the right hand of the Heavenly Father (being part of the holy trinity – Father, Son and the Holy Spirit) even now interceding for us, but I am an unreserved believer – he made me a believer.

When you find that you have strength to face some especially daunting situations and emerge unscathed on the other side, you know without a doubt that divinity is at work. Jesus’ miraculous ways can transform a messy situation into a message of hope and peace any day of the week.

I recently came across a devotional that absolutely drives home the point of the intercessory nature of Jesus since He doesn’t wish that “any should perish but that all should come to repentance,” 2 Peter 3:9.

Authored by Peter Hoytema (a pastor for nearly three decades, who is now shepherding a congregation in Strathroy, Ontario) and found at https://todaydevotional.com/, the devotional outlines that the Bible shows us that Jesus speaks to the Father on our behalf.  Romans 8:34 says that Jesus “is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” In 1 John 2:1 we read that Jesus is our “advocate with the Father,” and from Hebrews 7:25 we learn that Jesus “­always lives to intercede” for us.

In explaining what this intercession looks like, Hoytema highlighted some valid questions that people can reasonably ask after reading the Holy Scriptures such as: Why would Jesus send his disciples out on the lake to struggle against a prevailing wind? (Accounts of this is recorded at Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-51 and John 6:16-21) And why, after leaving them alone for the night, would he go out to walk on the water just before dawn?

According to Hoytema, when we are in a struggle of some kind, even if it’s just an annoying wind, we tend to ask God, “Why?”

But he concludes that “there are no easy answers to our questions about struggles, but the image of Jesus praying while his disciples are struggling should encourage us. It assures us that even though we may feel alone, God has not abandoned us. Jesus came to this world to share our trouble and to defeat the powers that are too strong for us to conquer. He still walks on the churning waters of life that can frighten us so! He has come to be with us in power and with love. In heaven, ruling over all things today, Jesus sees us. Through his Spirit, He is with us, and He is praying for us.”

Submitting to Him becomes easy when you begin to comprehend, just a little bit, who He really is.

Devotional prayer: Lord, when I feel I am struggling alone, help me to know that you are with me and that you are praying for me. Use me also to share this comfort with others. In your name, Amen.

 

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