Are You Submitted To God?

It baffles me how in our lives we want to be our own guide most of the time.  We want to determine where and when we go somewhere or do something and we do this all without realizing that the God of the universe is involved and intimately acquainted with all of our ways.

I was sitting outside and realized there was a cloud behind me.  It reminded me of the cloud that signified the manifest presence of the Lord over his people as they traveled through the wilderness.  

Even though God's people had a physically evident reminder every day that He was with them, guiding them every step of the way they still went astray. 

With Aaron's help they erected an idol that they declared was God even when they knew the presence of the one true God was near to them.  

Nehemiah 9:16-1

But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments.  They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.  

In our ignorance and self will we do the very same thing that they did.  We act presumptuously by thinking we know the will of God, we stiffen our neck and won't listen to godly counsel because we think we know what God wants all the while going against the God ordained leadership in our lives.  

In our idolatry we do not think back to all the wonderful works of God that were done, confirming His presence and leading in the past that brought us out of bondage and under the protective care of a spiritual leader but instead of submitting to our current spiritual leader we appoint a new spiritual leader of our own, not realizing that in so doing we are returning into slavery.  

God ordains leadership over our lives and when we think that we can pick and choose who will be our leaders we fall into the same presumptuous trap that Aaron and the Israelites did when they followed someone other than the leader that God ordained.  

Think about David.  David knew that God had ordained him to be king however, he had to wait for that to become a reality. For 20 years David was submitted to a demonized king and this was God's plan.  

David had many opportunities to speak poorly and even kill Saul but he would not overstep God's ordained king to make himself the lord of all. 

David learned the importance of waiting on the Lord.  He did not appoint himself as king over his life but submitted to the leadership that God had placed over him until his time had come.  David was in training to be king.

Recall what Jesus said to the mother who requested that her sons sit on either side of him in heaven.

"You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt authority over those under them.  

But among you it will be different.  

Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be a servant.  

Most church leaders are not demonized kings but weak and broken men and women that God has ordained to watch over His flock.  

So often people get frustrated or disillusioned with a leader and think that their agenda does not line up with their own vision for their lives all the while disregarding that God placed them in a body and it was not their decision.  

Hebrews 13:17

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.  Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.  

God watches over our lives today and he has assigned spiritual leaders for this task.  It is His design and we are to submit to His ordained leaders, not thinking that we can pick and choose who our leaders are.  

We presumptuously assume that it is our decision, all the while erecting our own kingdom of idols that fuel our passions.

Thank God that He is merciful to show us our error and quick to forgive in the very same way that He forgave the Israelites when they went astray from God's ordained leadership over their lives.  

Nehemiah 9:17-19 

But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. 

 Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, 'This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,' and had committed great blasphemies, you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness.  

The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go.  

Thankfully He will not abandon us when assume the role of God in our lives, deciding who will be our leader but He is ready to forgive us and He continues to lead us as He did not depart from them He will not depart from us either.  

When we can rest in the Lord's ordained leadership for our lives we find refreshing and spiritual nourishment.  Even if it seems we are in a  spiritually parched land, God is with us.  He never leaves us or forsakes us.  He guides us and His hand is upon us and we lack nothing. 

Nehemiah 9:20-21

You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their most and gave them water for their thirst.  Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing.  Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.  

Father, thank you for assigning spiritual leaders over our lives to watch over our souls.  Help us to submit to your ordained pattern for our lives and not usurp your authority by believing that we can pick and choose who leads us.  Forgive us for believing the lie that we are our own spiritual guides through the wilderness of life.  Conform our hearts to the truth of Your word and Your ordained leadership, showing forth your glory as we submit to Your will for our lives.