...other meditations

blessed submission

submit yourselves, then, to God. resist the devil and he will flee from you. james 4:7

what have i been waiting for all of these years? clearly i was wasting time. i wasted precious time waiting to be fixed. i suppose i thought that God was going to snap His fingers and straighten things out for me. yes, He is more than capable of doing that. however, i've been learning that that's not exactly how God works. i can pray until the cows come home, but nothing is going to change if i don't do one thing: submit myself to Him!

i already knew that i had sin in my life and that it had a very tenacious grip. i also noticed that my prayers weren't helping matters either. i basically remained in this vicious cycle and floundered through life. so, a few months ago, God nudged me to embark on a journey into a new ‘wilderness'. what i learned was shocking. God opened my eyes to a tamara i never knew existed. He showed me the tamara who was unwilling to free herself from sin. i learned that, in a twisted way, i felt comfortable right in the middle of my mess and that i wasn't going to let go.

contrary to what i had thought before, submission is not the same as obedience. submission is surrendering one's will. a regimen of prayer and quiet time with God is awesome, but that's not all it takes. i need to be willing to change and to surrender those sinful areas of my life to God. and even if i am unwilling, i at least need to be willing to be made willing.

since i began this journey, God has been so faithful in touching my life! after trusting Him and submitting to His will, He immediately got to work. the things that i never thought i could do i was now able to do. the things that i thought i'd never stop doing i stopped doing. there is still so much work to be done. yet, even though i have battles to face and victories to be won, i can't help but be amazed of the growth that i am seeing in me. i am being made whole again.

when i submit to God and lay my life down, i leave no room for my desires, my thoughts, my goals, or my way. i only have room enough for Him. the only way i can resist satan is to stop resisting God's will for my life. if i am not changing, then i am not growing. to God be the Glory!

in His masterful will,

tamara