Submit thyself

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(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

“And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.”

There is always a temptation for a Christian to rebel against God and to refuse to do what He wants. We must remember that we obey God because we love Him (John 14: 15), not because we want to earn His pleasure. This doesn’t meant that God will abandon us completely and we can no longer have any relationship with Him. As soon as we try to run away from God, God begins to work in our lives to bring us back to Himself. In this case Hagar, who was still part of God’s long term plans, tried to run away from God. God had also made promises concerning Ishmael and these would certainly fail if Ishmael was to die. The Lord came to Hagar and told her to return and submit to His plan for her life. This is a good thing for all of us to do in life. If we submit to God we then have complete access to all of the good things that He will do for us day by day. He will not stop loving us and He will continue to work in our lives to bring us back under the shadow of His wings (see Matt 23: 37). This also reminds us of the story of Mark. When he was young he left the missionary band that was led by Barnabas, his cousin (Acts 13: 13). Later, when Barnabas wanted to take Mark on their second missionary journey Paul didn’t want to take him (Acts 15: 37-41). The Lord used this event to form two missionary bands instead of one and caused His work to prosper. Much later, Paul asked Timothy to bring Mark because Mark was profitable to his ministry (2 Tim 4: 11). The Lord will not give up on any entirely unless they refuse to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord.