The word submission, surrender, and obedience often confuse me. Individually they can all stand alone, but they also connect to one another as well. When one states they have surrendered all to Jesus they could also exchange surrendered for submitted or obedient. So do they all mean the same thing or does one come first and then the others follow?
Upon looking up the three words on http://www.dictionary.com/, I found all three words have commonalities. All three definitions contain the word “yield”. The word obedience is defined as submissive and the word submit is defined as obey.
So here is my take on the three. You must first submit to the Lord God Almighty. When you submit you defer to another. In this case, you defer to God’s judgment and opinion. Then you make the conscience choice to surrender yourself to Him based upon the opinion of God and abandon or give up control of your life to live for Jesus. Once this is achieved, which by the way needs to be done on a daily…moment by moment basis, one can become obedient and yield to the whispers of the Holy Spirit and comply with the Lord’s desires for their life. Confusing? Yes, I will admit it is a bit.
Think of it this way. It is like the braiding of hair. You need all three strands woven together…one on top of another…all crisscrossing and intersecting until beauty is achieved. When you submit, surrender, and obey to the will of the Lord a flame of fire occurs…a kind of combustion when the three come together. They cause a blaze of intense zeal and passionate love for Jesus. One will glow and shine brightly. But the most amazing thing is... we in turn serve our risen Lord and become His host or hostess offering and distributing his love to others in hope that they too will catch the flame and become a blazing fire for Christ Jesus as well! Therefore the circle of life continues to abound and expand in Christ's victory of deaths sting...ultimate beauty is acheived!
Upon looking up the three words on http://www.dictionary.com/, I found all three words have commonalities. All three definitions contain the word “yield”. The word obedience is defined as submissive and the word submit is defined as obey.
So here is my take on the three. You must first submit to the Lord God Almighty. When you submit you defer to another. In this case, you defer to God’s judgment and opinion. Then you make the conscience choice to surrender yourself to Him based upon the opinion of God and abandon or give up control of your life to live for Jesus. Once this is achieved, which by the way needs to be done on a daily…moment by moment basis, one can become obedient and yield to the whispers of the Holy Spirit and comply with the Lord’s desires for their life. Confusing? Yes, I will admit it is a bit.
Think of it this way. It is like the braiding of hair. You need all three strands woven together…one on top of another…all crisscrossing and intersecting until beauty is achieved. When you submit, surrender, and obey to the will of the Lord a flame of fire occurs…a kind of combustion when the three come together. They cause a blaze of intense zeal and passionate love for Jesus. One will glow and shine brightly. But the most amazing thing is... we in turn serve our risen Lord and become His host or hostess offering and distributing his love to others in hope that they too will catch the flame and become a blazing fire for Christ Jesus as well! Therefore the circle of life continues to abound and expand in Christ's victory of deaths sting...ultimate beauty is acheived!
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