“For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers
under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he
comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” (Luke 7:8, NKJV)
Submission: Ahhh…there’s
that lovely word that some cringe at the sound of!
Submission defined is: The action or fact of accepting or yielding to a superior
force or to the will or authority of another person.
Obedience
defined is: Compliance with someone's wishes or
orders or acknowledgment of their authority.
A quick
disclaimer:
Let’s not go off the deep end with this. Let’s all operate in
wisdom. If an authority figure is telling us to do something illegal, immoral,
or unethical, obviously we don’t do it because God is our final authority.
A recent
Facebook post from a close personal friend set my brain to some very deep
thinking.
“When someone asks what exactly I do at
WOW (Walk on Water Faith Church, www.faithman.org) I always respond,
"Whatever Pastor Loretta asks me to do." Why? Because that is what I
am called to do even if it is outside my comfort zone or my known gifting. God
will equip me for whatever I am asked to do AND prosper it because I simply
obeyed. Hopefully this will help more of you find your place in the Kingdom of
God.” Gwen Payne
I am the
president of our family owned business. Being in that position of authority has
taught me about submission. We have five locations on four different Hawaiian
Islands. We have over a dozen employees. Over the past several years, the employees
at our business have been indirectly teaching me about submission to authority.
I ask them to do something and they do it. I say, “Will you please _____fill in
the blank_____?” And they immediately respond with, “Yes”. They don’t quiz or ask for full disclosure before doing what I ask. Sometimes, they
don’t agree with me. But I make decisions from a different vantage point. I am
privy to information they are not always privy to. We are blessed with the best
crew God has available. I would walk through the fire with any one of them.
They are phenomenal group of individuals and we are very grateful for each of
them. I am especially grateful to them for teaching me this lesson on
authority.
I equate my
position of authority in our company much in the same way as my pastor’s
position of authority at church. I am learning how to submit to his authority
on a new level. I am learning how to submit to his authority on a deeper level, not because he is
perfect but because my attitude in submitting to his authority is directly linked to my obedience to God.
Our pastors
may not always do everything exactly how we would like to see them done. Nor
will they always take the church in the direction we would like to see it go. Doing
what God has called them to do isn’t a power trip and a lot of the time they
make decisions that are not even remotely fun. Oftentimes, they are called to do what
is very difficult and must be obedient to God’s prompting. God didn’t call me
to pastor. He has called me to be obedient to His Word.
"God will equip me for whatever I am asked to do AND prosper it because I simply obeyed." Gwen Payne
We would
love to hear from you!
Tell us, what have you learned about submission?
