The Daily Grace - A Submission Problem

During a talk-show interview, a celebrity confessed that she spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours each year on her hair and its styling. She recognized that it had become an addiction and admitted that her problem was "submission to the hair". The word submission means "an act of yielding to the authority or control of another". Because of her desire to look and feel beautiful, this celebrity was allowing her hair to be in control of her life.

This woman's story could lead us to wonder about our own hearts' desires and what we're submitting to. Do we at times want something so badly that we submit to doing anything to get it? Are we submitting to admiration? Possessions? Self? Food? Money? Pleasure?

In his epistle to the Romans, Paul said, "to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves" (6:16). When our desires "war" within us (James 4:1), we are to submit ourselves to God as "slaves of God" (Rom. 6:22). Humbling ourselves before the Lord (James 4:10) and asking Him to show us our heart will help us to recognize our own submission problems. True freedom is not in choosing our own way, but in submitting to God's way.