The Wisdom of Submitting to God

This entry is part 19 of 20 in the series Wisdom

Wisdom is about cultivating a higher sense of “the good life”—not giving ourselves in exchange for power, popularity, or possessions, but submitting to the calling of Christ.

Submitting to God

Imagine for a moment that God did give you everything you wanted—a sort of cosmic vending machine. Would you still seek after Him with your whole heart? Chances are, the material, temporal goods would crowd out an eternal perspective on what really matters. Filling life with temporal things, after all, has a way of distracting us from our true best interests.

God calls us to the wisdom of submission to His purposes. His plans are always better than what we would have chosen for ourselves. When we surrender everything to Him, we discover what life is truly about. But when we seek freedom on our own terms, following after our will instead of God’s, we actually experience enslavement.

Keeping the End in Mind

We are meant for more than this world can provide. Wisdom teaches us to meditate on God’s truths to keep us oriented toward eternity. We must obey God now in every area of life—in our businesses, homes, vacations, schools—cultivating character that reflects His image.

Obedience to God is not easy, but adversity has its role in strengthening our relationship with Christ. Ultimately, we will never regret an act of obedience to God because there is a telos, an end goal, for our obedience. We will gain so much more than we lose in this temporal arena—we have a far better destiny than we would choose for ourselves apart from God.

Looking for another resource to help you gain wisdom? Consider walking through Ken’s Conformed to His Image bundle (revised textbook, study guide, and/or video series) with a group of people.

Watch more videos from Ken’s Sunday morning class.

Series Navigation<< The Theology of WisdomWisdom and the Sovereignty of God >>