JOB 22:21-23 Submit to God, and you will have peace, and then things will go well for you. Listen to His instructions, and store them in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored, so clean up your life.

Many of us are living without peace, joy, contentment, and wholeness. We want it but don’t know what to do to get it. We wonder how we got to the place that we are at right now. We ask what we have done to deserve the misery that we are in. We think that if so and such would change, if this would happen, if we had this or that, then we would finally have the peace and joy that we are missing. We think of all the outwardly things that could bring us wholeness but we fail to look within ourselves. It is so much easier to point the finger elsewhere rather than to have to face ourselves for what we are lacking. But as long as we do that then we will always be lacking something because everything starts with us. No one else can be to blame for our lack of peace, happiness, contentment, and wholeness unless we allow them to take it from us.

JOB 22:21-23 plainly tells us how to have peace. It tells us what to do to have joy, contentment, and wholeness. It says that things will go well for us if we submit to God. That sounds easy enough right. Then why is it that so many of us are in lack of something? It sounds simple but yet, for many of us, it is really hard to do. Submitting means that we have to give up control. It means that we have to do somethings that we would rather not do. It means putting others before self. It means putting full trust in God. But submitting to God is the best thing that we could do for ourselves. He has our best interest in mind. He wants us to be peaceful, joyful, loving, content, and whole, living our best life. And He knows what will bring that to each one of us. He knows what each choice that we make will bring. He knows the outcome to each decision that we will make. He knows what our deepest desires and needs are. He knows things about us that we do not even know because He created us. And because He knows all of this, it is even more of a reason to submit to Him.

We like to think that this is our life and we know what is best for us. We like to think that we got this and that we do not need any help. We have the mentality that no one is going to tell us what to do with OUR life. But the truth of the matter is that we do not always know what is best for us all the time. We do not “got this” and we do need help daily. And while it is true that noody can tell you what to do with your life, if you want the best life that you can have, you better start listening to God. If we knew and did what was best, if we didn’t need help and advice, and if we were masters at life then we would be lacking nothing in life. But we are all lacking something. No one has it all. And those that do have peace, joy, contentment, and are satisfied with life are those that have learned how to give up on self and give into God. It is those that have learned to listen to God and stored His instructions in their hearts. It is those who have returned to the Almighty and His ways and have been restored. It is those who have decided to submit to God and cleaned up their lives by doing as He says.

Submitting to God is doing what is best for ourselves and our lives. It is choosing to do what your heart is telling you to do instead of what your flesh or your mind is telling you to do. It is choosing to do the dishes when you would rather just sit there. It is choosing to only eat three cookies instead of half of the bag. It is choosing to not engage with someone that is trying to argue with you. It is choosing to do the right thing, the best thing, the moral thing, the Godly thing. It is taking back the control that your flesh and the enemy has had over you. It is choosing to do now what you will be happy with later on.

Living life for ourselves and by our rules is one of the sure ways to not have peace, joy, and contentment in your life. It is the perfect receipe for disaster. While making a mistake is how we learn many lessons, their are many mistakes that could be avoided by submitting to God. We can avoid many consequences, hardships, dramas, disappointments, and troubles by simply doing what God tells us to do. We can keep ourselves from doing things that cause us to be miserable by focusing on doing what God wants us to do.

If you are looking for more peace, joy, contentment, and satisfaction with life, decide today that you are going to submit to God’s ways instead of your own ways. Decide that you are going to have the life that Jesus has planned for you. And the only way to do that is to do what He has planned for you.