The Elements of Contentment, Part 2

What submission is (and isn't)

In our last piece, we began discussing the elements of contentment – the “building blocks” of the joyful acceptance of God’s providence. In that one, we covered trust and satisfaction. Today, we’ll consider the element of submission.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:6-7).

“Submission” may be the strangest-sounding of these elements; both historic American culture and modern individualism are allergic to the idea of submitting to anyone or anything. But a vital element of contentment is being willing to submit ourselves to God’s will, whatever that may be.

What does this kind of submission look like?

Recognizing God’s authority in receiving our circumstances.

We’ve talked in other places about the Christian doctrine of God’s providence, but it’s worth remembering here (from the Heidelberg Catechism):

Q 27. What do you understand by the providence of God?

A. God's providence is His almighty and ever-present power, whereby, as with His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures, and so governs them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things, come not by chance but by His fatherly hand. (emphasis added)

Every circumstance we face comes on some level through God’s hand. It may not be something in line with his deepest heart for us – “he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men” (Lamentations 3:33) – but as the Old Testament story of Job and the New Testament experience of Jesus testify, God is ultimately in control even when we experience suffering and evil.

Not only that: God’s permitting us to experience adverse circumstances can be part of his fatherly care for us. The author of Hebrews wrote to a congregation who were experiencing persecution for their faith:

Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
    nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and chastises every son whom he receives.”

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? … For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:5-7, 11)

If Jesus, God’s eternal son, was subjected to suffering as part of his Father’s plan for him, we shouldn’t be surprised when we experience suffering on this side of eternity. God is using it to train us into greater likeness to his Son.

Last year, both of us fell ill with chronic autoimmune diseases. As far as we know, these aren’t “lifestyle diseases” brought about by choices we’ve made; maybe one day some common behavioral or environmental factor behind them will be identified, but the doctors we’ve asked about the coincidence haven’t been able to say anything beyond, “It sounds like bad luck.” We know from Jesus’ healing ministry and the promises about the new creation that chronic diseases aren’t in line with God’s deepest heart for the world: he’s going to eradicate disease from the world one day. But the doctrine of providence means that on some level, he allowed us to receive these things, and has some fatherly reason for allowing it.

The opposite of submission in this instance is either bitterness or abandonment of God. Either way, instead of bringing our pain to God, we let it move us away from him. We might simply abandon him, thinking he’s not real or he doesn’t care about us; or we might become so consumed with our hurt that we poison our hearts against him. Both of these are functions of pride instead of humility, where we take authority over our lives instead of accepting God’s.

Recognizing God’s authority in responding to our circumstances.

It means that however we react to what comes our way, we do so while acknowledging and living under God’s control.

That doesn’t mean we can’t grieve or even complain to God about what happens to us. There’s an entire genre of prayer called lament that brings painful things to God and asks him to change them. See this prayer of anguish from King David:

O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,
    nor discipline me in your wrath.
Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;
    heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.
My soul also is greatly troubled.
    But you, O Lord—how long?

^…

I am weary with my moaning;
    every night I flood my bed with tears;
    I drench my couch with my weeping. (Psalm 6:1-3, 6)

Lament brings pain, anger, fear, and even doubt to God honestly, and asks him to intervene. It’s a perfectly acceptable way to handle hard circumstances, and God invites it, just like a good parent wants their kids to come to them with pain and difficulty.

The difference between lament and general complaining – or between lament and losing faith – is that lament leads us to trust God more deeply instead of moving us away from him. Lament recognizes God’s authority by complaining to him, just like my kids recognize my authority when they complain about not getting dessert. Most recorded laments in the Bible end in some kind of reaffirmation of trust in God, whether the circumstances improve or not. They lead to submission to his fatherly authority rather than bitterness.

Recognizing God’s authority also doesn’t mean we can’t try to improve our circumstances. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes:

Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. … Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) (1 Corinthians 7:17, 21)

Paul simultaneously lays the principle of accepting our circumstances as “the life that the Lord has assigned” to us, and says there’s nothing wrong with leaving a condition of affliction if we can. Commenting on this, Jeremiah Burroughs says we are free to use “lawful means” to improve our condition, which means any means available to us that don’t lead us into sin.

In the case of our medical diagnoses, submission doesn’t mean we can’t try to be treated – we’re both incredibly thankful for modern medicine! But if, by some unimaginable disruption of manufacturing or supply chains, our medicines became unavailable, it would be wrong of us to steal them from others. In the same way, a single Christian is welcome to date, but not free to marry a non-Christians out of a desire for a spouse. Submission accepts God-given boundaries around our desires.

Submit ourselves to God in this way - receiving and responding to our circumstances under his authority - lets us begin to see good in our lives that we might have missed otherwise. It lets us appreciate what we have and begin to be thankful for things we would have scorned otherwise. And it frees us to start loving others, where we might otherwise get consumed with our hurt or our desire to make our circumstances better. That acceptance, and the freedom and fruit it can bring, lead us into deeper contentment.