Submission In The Final Move

Submission In The Final Move

Sister Miki Terayama - 3 April 2022

Weekend Devotion: Submission In The Final Move

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Dear brothers and sisters, we are living in an era that values a lot on personal emotions. We see people are caring a lot more about how they feel and following their feelings. The other day, I was browsing in a stationery shop and I see a lot of notebooks and files with aesthetic prints. And on the cover, self love slogans are splashed across, like “Follow your heart”, “Do what makes you happy” or “Unapologetically Me”. It is a trending culture and it has also made its way in through the doors of churches, to believers. We can sometimes see the ferventness, passion or humility of people as they worship God, praise God or use really beautiful words to express their love and submission to God in their lives. But we have to ask ourselves: Does all these eventually turn into real, consistent and sustaining actions of submission? Does the state of our feelings ultimately roll out into a response? IS the Lord really the Lord? Of our relationships, our time, our money? When we dig deeper, we may start to realise there are still corners of our lives that we are still not entirely surrendering to God, still in self deception about or unable to be upright with God in. Now if we are reflecting together in this, let us see what the Lord Jesus has taught regarding this in the famed parable of The Two Sons. A father asked his two sons to work in his vineyard. So firstly

Let’s read Matthew 21:28-32. “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

“I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.    

This parable was meant for Jesus to point out the hypocrisy of the religious leaders as well as the truth for those who are receptive and submissive to the Lord’s leading in the end. So here we see two groups of response.

Initially Reject, Ultimately Submit

Now we see an interesting fact in the first son. In actual fact, his emotions, speech and demeanour obviously shows his rejection to his father’s request. His initial response was unwillingness to work in his dad’s vineyard, maybe because he has something else to do in mind, maybe laziness, maybe fatigue from other work or he does not like to do what he does not enjoy. So in a quick reflex, he said no. But later on, he changed his mind. Maybe he saw that the vineyard was build up by his father’s blood, sweat and tears, and now it belongs to the whole family. So he was willing to submit and labour on it. In this context, Jesus is actually talking about the tax collectors and prostitutes who are lowly in status, in their life choices and in the eyes of men, but when John came to them with the Good News, they saw their need for God and followed Him. Many times, when we are walking in our own faith journey, serving God’s calling for God’s kingdom, and church, we may also start to see that we seem to be giving more than we would like or stepping out of our comfort zones, challenging our strengths, so we inevitably develop a sense of reluctance and lament to continue doing. But after prayers, restoring our identity as God’s children and our belonging in God’s plans and building of His kingdom, we will discover that ultimately we still submit. Actually, this final motion to submission is what pleases God and what He deems precious. This ultimate response shows the true submission in a person despite their struggles with flesh and weaknesses.

Outwardly Submit, Ultimately Reject

But the Lord also tells of the other son whom represents the Pharisees and religious leaders that Jesus was directing the parable to. It is also likened to the many outwardly fervent believers of the church or those who are led by emotions to follow the Lord. They may serve well, praise God and tell of surrendering their lives to Him, but when they walk out of church and into their daily lives, it may not match with what they claim. There is no singularity in the way they live inside and outside the house of God. They may live like people of the world, speak like them, manage their health and wealth like them or handle interpersonal relationships like them. There may not be acknowledgment of God or seeking counsel from God’s truth in any part.
For the Pharisees and religious leaders, they were not willing to serve in their hearts and there is no true repentance or turning back to God. So even when John came to preach the gospel of repentance, they walked on by in their own path. John wore camel hair, ate wild honey, and proclaimed repentance in the wilderness. But these outwardly pious Pharisees were not moved in their hearts by the truth, neither were they willing to turn back to God. They do not think they are guilty by their sins.
The tax collectors, however, heard the message and their remorse came with practical actions as they turn from their evil deeds to the Lord. Thus their whole life is steered heaven-ward, joining in God’s kingdom. They were like the elder son who went to work in their father’s vineyard at the end.

So brothers and sisters, many times, we are in the middle ground state. Where we find it hard to submit, hard to do more than we comfortably would like to do or enjoy doing. But do you see that there are still areas of our lives that we need to come clean in the truth? Are there still some hidden areas we need to repent in? If so, which response would you graduate into? This is something we have to keep introspecting throughout our lives.
God bless.

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Miki Terayama
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Miki is a full-time ministry staff at The Blessed Run Ministries. She is a sister who shares a natural, God-given affinity with children and youths. She is married to Randy (NET Group Youth Leader) and has two little ones of her own, Liora and Jude. She is involved in the children, youth and social media ministries.

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