This is a picture of the waterfall toad. He lives in South America and is the size of a postage stamp. This toad has no poison or strong back legs or any other obvious protective mechanism. When a snake or other predator comes around, it just leaps out into the air with only one goal in mind, escaping the predator. It has no landing spot already mapped out. It just leaps off into space from the top of a waterfall. You’d think at the bottom of the waterfall there’d be a pile of dead waterfall toads, but instead on the way down the toad puts his little legs out and grabs a vine or branch and catches himself before he hits the ground. When the toad leapt off the waterfall, he didn’t know which branch he would grab onto. He just knew that if he jumped two things would happen. 1) There WOULD be a branch and 2) he wouldn’t be eaten by the snake. I saw this toad on a Discovery channel program. I thought to myself, “Do I have as much faith as the waterfall toad?” I looked this guy up online and read an article by the producer of the program. He said in four days of filming never once did a toad not find a branch or vine to grab onto. Each and every time he found a branch to break his fall. Do I have that much faith, to believe that each and every time God will break my fall? I read an e-mail quote recently that said when you take a leap of faith either God will catch you or teach you to fly.
So let’s see if I can put my money where my mouth is…
Review: we learned last week that throughout the Bible everyone is called to submit in different aspects of their life – as a child, as an employee, as a wife, as a husband, as a citizen, as a church member, etc. We learned that a block to our willingness to submit is a sinful mind. The mind tells us that we don’t need to submit to be what God wants. It actually tells me the opposite – that if you submit, you are less of a person and less able to lead your family. We learned that some sinful thoughts that lead to rebellion include leaning on our own understanding, lack of faith in God, preferring my desires to God’s desires, and receiving our ideas about submission from the wrong sources. We combat a sinful mind by following 2 Corinthians 10:5 and taking hold of each thought and comparing it to a biblical truth and bringing our thoughts into submission with the will of God.
This week we are going to look at what happens when we have the faith of a waterfall toad, when we believe in our heart that if we simply take the leap that God will provide a branch for us to grab onto.
Does submission mean just giving in to whatever we are told by those in authority? Does it mean becoming a door mat and not having an opinion or any say in our lives?
Ephesians 4:14-15 – “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”
I believe that this verse says the opposite of doormat. We are not being called to simply blindly follow authority without an opinion. We are called here to not be blown about by every wind or the craftiness of man. We are instead called to stand up and speak the truth in love under Christ.
So let’s say that we encounter a situation at work or at home where we absolutely know that we are right on a topic. There are times that I truly believe that my perspective is better and sometimes even that it is more like what God wants from my family than the position from my husband. What do we do in that situation? First, we speak the truth in love. Ok. So now I have spoken the truth in love. What if the boss, the husband, the President still persists in doing things his or her way even after you spoke the truth in love? What should we do?
We can choose one of two options – 1) continue to press the issue which will probably just lead to anger, bitterness, and resentment or 2) we can go along and listen to Philippians 2:14-15 - Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.
What?? Just give up?
No. We should just give it up to God. We should adopt the attitude of the waterfall toad and just take a flying leap!
Now, I don’t know about you, but this just goes against my nature. I am nothing like the waterfall toad. I want a roadmap of exactly how I am going to get down from the waterfall. I want to get online and make sure that is the best way, I’m going to need to call my dad and get his opinion, I am going to need to do some research to make sure the branch will hold my weight.
It’s then that I have to take hold of that thought. Who is more powerful, me or God? One of my favorite passages from the Bible is in Job Chapters 36-40. For four chapters, the Bible covers all of the things that God has done which I have no power over. When the birds lay eggs, how the lion hunts, where the tide ends and land begins, how a locust leaps, how the clouds hang in the sky. In Job 38:21, it says, “Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!”
That hurts! Chapter after chapter, verse after verse about my insignificance and then throw in there a verse basically saying, “What’s the problem? You should know these answers, right?”
Obviously, God is more powerful than any of us could ever be. Yet I challenge His authority by questioning His plan for my life?
I have to have enough faith in God that even when I know I am right, even when I know my way is better than the one to whom I am called to submit, that He will resolve this. I need to give it up to God and take the leap.
One problem I have with that is that sometimes things won’t get resolved in my lifetime or even before Judgment Day. I need to internalize that when the issue gets resolved is God’s decision, not mine – Proverbs 21:1 – “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.”
1 Samuel 15:23 – “For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king." More than likely God would fix my relationships, but I get in the way. I tie his hands with rebellion and stubbornness. I would be king, except for my rebellion and arrogance.
Really defying authority is as if I am saying this situation cannot be fixed unless I take over. It is incumbent upon me to recognize that it will be resolved on God’s time and in God’s way. He laid the foundation of the earth, I think he can handle my husband or boss – or even me!
Last week we talked about the fact that even Christ had to submit to something he didn’t want to do. He had to go to the cross despite the pain and sadness that he knew he would endure. He prayed to God: Mark 14:36 – “Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." He submitted to God’s authority. Our salvation depended on Jesus’ submission. Have you ever thought what if someone’s salvation depended on your submission?
Let’s say that again – what if someone’s salvation, whether they spent eternity in heaven, depended on your submission to God’s will?
Let’s look at a legal analogy – let’s say you were wrongly accused of a crime and had to go on trial for the crime. You’re in court, the judge is there. The person accusing you is on the witness stand recounting the way you committed the crime. You yell out and defend yourself. The judge tells you to be quiet as he begins again to listen to the accuser. You yell out again. Now you are found to be in contempt of court and taken off to serve your sentence for that crime. Initially, you were innocent. You hadn’t committed a crime, but due to your rebelliousness and inability to trust that the situation would resolve itself, you are now guilty.
Another of my favorite passages in the Bible is in 2 Kings, Chapter 6. In this chapter, Elisha is assisting the Israelites in battle. He is telling them where the enemy will be waiting for them. The enemy finds out that Elisha is helping with battle plans. He surrounds the camp to take Elisha. A servant cries out to Elisha when he sees the camp surrounded. Verse 16 says, "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Elisha prays that the servant’s eyes will be opened. The servant looks again and sees the reality – the hills behind Elisha are full of horses and chariots of fire. Elisha had God on his side. The servant saw hopelessness and powerlessness. Elisha’s eyes were open to the reality that God was with them. I am nothing on my own. With God and in submission to God’s plan, I am powerful.
So do you believe that God could do anything he wants? If so, couldn’t he change the heart of the one in authority? Don’t you believe that God can change lives? This will be the test of your faith. This will be the moment where you decide that the words of the Bible are true, that God can and does change lives, that Jesus is alive. Are you willing to leap off the waterfall in the belief that God will provide a branch for you?
Our memory work for this week is 2 Kings 6:16 - "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." I am going to encourage you this week to know that the hills behind you are full of horses and chariots and that you should have the faith of a waterfall toad and know that God will provide the branch if you are willing to leap. His plan is the right plan, we just have to have the faith to follow it and to let God do the rest.
***Next week we are going to look at the Garden of Eden and the beginning of submission.
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