Reverence Requires Submission

Submission over Autonomy

If there is an s-word other than the original s-word these days, it’s the word submission. If you don’t believe me, announce that your next women’s Bible study topic is going to be submission, and watch your participants run. But submission isn’t just for women. It’s for Christians. Every one of us is ultimately under the authority of God. Yes, submission has been misused by many in the church who try to downplay marital abuse and clergy malfeasance, but we can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. We must instead recover a biblical view of submission.

What do I mean by submission? Submission means “to yield to governance or authority.”¹ For our purposes, submission is yielding to God. We often think of submission as making ourselves small and ignoring our own needs or desires. But submission is not passive acceptance of the whims of another. Submission to God involves actively using our resources to accomplish his purposes. If reverence is a muscle, it can best be strengthened when we practice submission. But what does submitting to God look like in the daily Christian life? The first step is to realize that absolute autonomy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, nor is it even possible. Our culture is self-absorbed. We have an instinctual resistance against authority. The world might say that you are foolish to let anyone or anything dictate what you should do or how you should live. The highest law is your self-fulfillment. But rather than gaining an enormous amount of freedom by shirking authority, we will eventually be harmed by all this autonomy. Consider if I drove my car this way, resisting any sort of restriction on where and how fast I drive. At best, I’d get a whopping ticket. At worst, I could get someone (or myself) killed. Good boundaries and direction are for our safety and our flourishing.

Stand in Awe

Laura Story

Sharing her 20 years of experience as a worship leader and award-winning recording artist, Laura Story shows readers how to engage in scriptural, reverential worship on Sunday mornings and during the other 6 days of the week.

Kelly Kapic suggests that we need to face our finitude. We are finite beings who are subject to limitations.² When we are tired, we need to sleep. When we are hungry, we need food. When we feel lonely, we need time with others. As we accept— submit to—the natural confines of our bodies, we realize that God gives us limitations not to suppress us but for our good. Refusing to submit to how he designed us to live will run us into the ground.

We can also submit to the Lord in how we spend our time. I often plan recklessly, packing way more into a day or week than it can realistically hold. Then, when each morning arrives, I ask God, “Please, Lord, multiply my time for all the good things I want to do for your kingdom today!” It took me years to figure out that God’s natural order, the way he created the world and time itself, needed to be factored into my attempts to discern his will. If a friend asked me to pick her up from the airport or move into her new apartment, but I had already committed to spending time with my kids or going on a date night, it most likely means that I was not the one to help that friend today. When we pridefully ignore our finitude and try to cram too many things into a day, not only do we have no time to rest and end up burning out, but we inevitably do things half-heartedly and end up neglecting those around us. We become so overwhelmed with trying to hold it all together that we turn to even more distractions in an attempt to cope. Trying to do it all is trying to be God. Submitting our time to him, being honest about the limitations he has given us, and prioritizing the things he cares about all show him honor and reverence.

Refusing to submit to how he designed us to live will run us into the ground.

Reverence through submission can also be shown when we submit to the wisdom of others. In his book In the Name of Jesus, Henri Nouwen tells the story of leaving the prestigious community of Harvard Divinity School to live as a chaplain at an adult assisted-living home for those living with mental disabilities. Of the many humbling changes he encountered, I was struck by the expectation of “togetherness” he experienced there. He describes how his sense of individualism was immediately challenged: “There I was one of many people who tried to live faithfully with handicapped people, and the fact that I was a priest was not a license to do things on my own. Suddenly everyone wanted to know my whereabouts from hour to hour, and every movement I made was subject to accountability.” Nouwen continued to reflect on his newfound community and all that God was showing him, saying, “I came to see that I had lived most of my life as a tightrope artist trying to walk on a high, thin cable from one tower to the other, always waiting for the applause when I had not fallen off and broken my leg.”³

This description of life and ministry resonates with me, as I am someone who tends to enjoy moving at breakneck speeds, justifying my mode of operation with many good “kingdom” reasons. But recently, I had a very close friend ask me if she could take a look at my calendar of events for the coming fall. I responded a bit surprised, as if she had asked to see my confidential medical records or bank statements. But this friend is one of the truest friends I have ever known, and she had noticed an unhealthy pace creeping up in my life and wanted to enter in and help. I realized in that moment that part of submitting to God in reverence is submitting to friends who seek to help me in my walk with the Lord.

This type of openness to instruction and rebuke from others is no new idea—we see it throughout the Scriptures. In Solomon’s collection of wise sayings, Proverbs, he reminds the reader that his sayings won’t make any difference if the reader is unwilling to hear:

Better is open rebuke
than hidden love.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend. (Prov. 27:5–6)

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Prov. 1:7)

Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good,
and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord. (Prov. 16:20)

And my personal favorite:

He who hates reproof is stupid. (Prov. 12:1)

It’s hard for me to read such verses without bristling a bit. Why? Because I am not a person who loves receiving instruction, and I don’t take too kindly to being called a fool. Who loves being corrected? No one. To receive wisdom and instruction, you must admit deficiency. You must come clean that you don’t know everything. And in many cases, the instruction comes with correction. But rather than ignoring, blame shifting, or justifying, submission requires that we receive correction. Yet Solomon also gives us this comfort: Submitting to trusted friends who speak truth into our lives is a beautiful tool that God uses to sanctify us, allowing us to be truly known and truly loved.

When Martin and I first moved to Atlanta, we met a man named Larry who owned an art gallery. After hearing about Martin’s brain surgery and the recovery he was undergoing, Larry invited Martin to come to his house once a week to paint. What began as a therapeutic exercise became a true love of Martin’s, and our house is now filled with beautiful paintings! But I remember early on when Martin began spending time with Larry. Martin would paint a bit, then Larry would come and give him correction. Martin would paint more, and Larry would give more correction. Martin willingly submitted his work to Larry’s critique because he knew that Larry had way more knowledge about painting than he did. And he trusted Larry. Submission isn’t easy. If you are aiming only for mediocrity, submission might not be for you. But if you desire growth in your faith and in your reverence toward God, choose submission over autonomy. We never have to fear submitting to a loving and trustworthy God.

Notes:

Merriam-Webster Dictionary, under “submit,” accessed September 12, 2025, https:// www.merriam-webster.com/.
Kelly M. Kapic, You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News (Brazos, 2022), 12.
Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership (Crossroad, 1989), 36.

This article is adapted from Stand in Awe: How Reverence Transforms Our Worship and Our Lives by Laura Story.

Laura Story (MATS, Covenant Theological Seminary) is a Grammy- and Dove Award-winning singer-songwriter, known for her certified platinum song “Blessings.” She serves as a worship leader at Perimeter Church and is also a Bible teacher and author of several books, including Stand in Awe and When God Doesn’t Fix It. Laura lives with her husband, Martin, and their four children in Atlanta, Georgia.

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