“Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”
Matthew 26:41(NLT)
Most of us have grown into adulthood understanding that we need to find a job or career and settle into it. We know that we need to work in order to have a certain lifestyle. We want food on the table, nice clothes to wear, and we want to have money to pay our bills and enjoy life. Incorporating work into our everyday routines is a no-brainer. In fact, for many of us, our whole routines revolve around our work schedules. We understand that this comes standard with life, and because it does, we develop a dependency on it. Because we rely on the paycheck we receive, our jobs hold a certain level of authority in our lives, and we can sometimes look to our jobs as the source of our well-being, rather than God. This is a problem.
It’s not only our bosses or jobs that we begin to see as the source that sustains our lives. Sometimes we see ourselves, spouses, children, or significant others that way as well. We begin to make our choices and decision according to what they want or expect, or what we want or expect. We make our choices and decisions based on how we want things to be, and it doesn’t occur to us to ask the Lord first. This is not the way He has instructed His children to behave. Proverbs 3:5-7(NLT) says, “5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. 7 Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the LORD and turn away from evil.”
Sufficiency is defined as being adequate or having all we need to meet whatever is required. We may think that others can make our worlds go around, or that we don’t need to consult our Heavenly Father for His wisdom and guidance, but this kind of attitude and thinking will always lead us down a dark path. 2Corinthians 3:5(NKJV) tells us, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.” We don’t know all that God knows, and we couldn’t possibly do all that God does. He is the One who makes our lives work, and we can’t do anything without Him.
In Matthew 26:41, Jesus Christ warns us to be alert and prayerful so that we don’t give in to the many temptations that the enemy throws our way. God’s Word also tells us in 1Peter 5:8(NLT), “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” Sometimes, situations are setup by the enemy to tempt us to abandon our faith in God. They are concocted by the devil to get us to ignore God’s Word and authority, and then do things our own way. We should recognize these tricks for what they are. They are sent to distract us and to destroy our relationship with our Heavenly Father.
In James 4:7(NLT), He tells us to “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Submitting to God should always be our response to temptations, especially those which make us think that we can be self-sufficient instead of leaning on the Father as our sufficiency and source of all good things.
Romans 8:7 tells us that a mind that is only set on self and chiefly concerned with what pleases the flesh is a mind that is an enemy to God; this kind of mind will not submit to Him. He commands us to turn away from that kind of thinking and behaving, and to seek Him first in all that we attempt to do. This is a new way of living and operating. It is living by the Spirit as God commands us in Galatians 5:25. We have to get rid of fear, anger, resentment, jealousy, and desire to only please the flesh. In order to submit to God, we must obey the Spirit. We must humble ourselves before God and invite Him into every aspect of our existences. As we do this and quiet ourselves in prayer, we must also listen for His guidance and directions as the Holy Spirit works within us and leads us according to God’s Will.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Submitting to God”, written by KLizzie, edited by Reverend Fran Mack, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.