The other day I was looking at a very familiar scripture and it was as if I had never seen it before. It was 1 Peter 5:6-7, but I began at verse 1. When I reached verse 5, it caught my eye. Normally, I breezed right over it, but that day it became a revelation to me.


1 Peter 5:5
Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for  “God resists the proud,  But gives grace to the humble.”


First, Peter exhorts younger people to submit to their elders (something very uncommon in today’s society). Then he tells us to submit to one another and be clothed in humility. The thought that came to me that day was that being submitted is being humble. I never thought of it in that light!


The thought that came to me that day was that being submitted is being humble.


In the past when I have ministered to people about true humility, I always refer to the fact that it concerns believing God’s Word about yourself and others. I never thought of it in the arena of submission. Nowadays, submission is a “bad” word. So many take it to one extreme or another. You have the group who will not move unless an authority figure tells them what to do. There are people who are being abused, but continually “submit” themselves to the abuse. Even King David did not stay in Saul’s palace while being abused because he could have lost his life, as the king was trying to kill him. Then there is the group who claim that they will not submit to any man, but only to God. The problem with this is that true submission to God will occur in our submission to man.


I always find it interesting that people will heed the advise or do something that someone who is not an authority figure has mentioned to them before they will act on what an authority would.


It goes back to the Garden. Satan fell because he thought he was better than God, his authority. Pride was what drove him to think that way. He did not believe who God made him to be. He wanted a different position.


Isn’t that usually the case with us? We want to be someone we are not.  Pride enters in because we think too high of ourselves or too low. Needless to say, both thoughts will impair our ability to submit. When we do not submit, we are actually resisting God.


According to 1 Peter 5:5, there is grace in submitting. It is freeing to submit. Most of time we associate submission with bondage, but the Bible tells us just the opposite. There is grace in submission because when we submit we are humble.


Verses 6-7 go on to say:
1 Peter 5:6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,
1 Peter 5:7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.


Fear, care, worry are the culprits that keep us from submitting.


We are afraid to yield to God and others because we will not be in control, because we will not have our way, etc.,  but God says we will be exalted when we humble ourselves through submission. The best example I know of this is found in Matthew 8:1-13. The centurion came to Jesus asking Him to heal his servant. He told Jesus how he understood authority because he was a man under authority. He knew because of Jesus’ authority that Jesus would only have to speak a word and his servant would be healed. In verse 10 Jesus marveled and said He had not found such great faith in all of Israel.


It takes great faith to be a submitted person. Many associate great faith with manifestations of things they have asked God for, but that is not what Jesus thought great faith was.


Great faith is being a person under authority.


My prayer is that each one of us would develop our faith to be submitted to God through others.