Submission

"For His is a shepherd's heart, and He is restless until He holds His sheep in His arms." I loved this sentence from the study. I feel like you can take this to mean that God is restless until we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, but it can also be that He is restless until we submit our lives, in the way that we live and serve others, completely to Him. God wants us to live our lives in submission and by doing so we live in God's hands. We cannot be a servant without God's power. Being a servant is a total and complete reversal of what comes naturally, so when we submit to God it means total dependence on Him. We can't just choose to be a good servant, we choose to live a life of submission to God and from there serving others flows naturally.

"To live is Christ and to die is..." It is so hard to think of submission as the things on this list. I don't want to surrender my rights or have people walk over me. But then I thought of a verse (1 Corinthians 4:10-13) from last year's staff devo. "We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world..." I think this is a pretty accurate picture of what it means to not only serve out on the water but to serve all the time. People will treat us poorly, but we are getting our strength and power from Christ. If we live a submitted life, we are living in God's arms!

And on a side note, I found today's devotional in "Jesus Calling" to be very encouraging and I wanted to share with you all. "Living in dependence on me is the way to enjoy abundant life. You are learning to appreciate tough times, because they amplify your awareness of My Presence. Tasks that you used to dread are becoming rich opportunities to enjoy My closeness. When you feel tired, you remember that I am your Strength; you take pleasure in leaning on Me. I am pleased by your tendency to turn to Me more and more frequently, especially when you are alone."