Jesus, help me get my emotions, my body, and my attitudes brought into a powerful condition. Show me that if these three areas are submitted to the wrong things then I don’t stand a chance of having real success in life. Help me see that my emotions, my attitudes, and my body create powerful drives that can FORCE me to do things I shouldn’t be doing. Rom 7:22 (NIV) For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. Jesus help me be totally set free from this imprisonment.

Mark 12:30 (NIV) Love the Lord your God with all your HEART and with all your SOUL and with all your MIND and with all your STRENGTH. Jesus, teach me that my emotions come out of my heart; that is the way it communicates with me. Help me understand that my body also communicates with me from drives; it pressures me with wants or hungers that force me to yield. Its drives and pressures flow through my soul. Help me understand that my mind holds my attitudes; I have filled it with all kinds of philosophies, information, and principles. Make it clear to me that most of these have come through the world and the devil. And, most of them are in opposition to the real way God, life, and the world work. Help me submit to You so these issues can be dealt with.

Jesus, help me understand that math, vocabulary, and uncontaminated science are things I can be taught that are neutral information. But, if I use math, language, or scientific information to refute the things in the Bible, it is no longer neutral. Show me that if I use them to cheat, steal, abuse, lie, or establish immoral relationships, they are no longer neutral. Help me see that SOME of my education was neutral; two plus two equals four as long as I am not adding up sins. Make it clear to me that the moment these neutral things (the things I got trained through the world system) are used for thinking, feeling, saying, or doing things that aren’t right, good, and righteous, that is the moment I have entered into the realm of those areas God is concerned about.

John 16:8 (NIV) When He (the Holy Spirit) comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. Teach me that the Holy Spirit is speaking to my conscience; He is trying to inform me of those things I am thinking, feeling, saying, and doing that aren’t neutral. John 16:13 (NIV) But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. Help me understand that when I read the Bible, the Holy Spirit is my authority as to what the Bible means. He will be guiding me into the true meaning of every verse in the Bible. Help me make Him my FINAL AUTHORITY as to what is right or wrong, good or bad, and what is righteous or evil.

Mark 12:30 (NIV) Love the Lord your God with all your HEART and with all your SOUL and with all your MIND and with all your STRENGTH. Jesus, use the first part of “Living Victoriously Through Submission,” to deal with my emotions that flow out of my heart. Use it to deal with the drives and passions of my body that communicate with me through my soul. Also, deal with my attitudes that come out of my mind.

Love the Lord your God with all your HEART and with all your SOUL and with all your MIND and with all your STRENGTH. Jesus, use the second part to deal with my STRENGTH I have in my God-given free will, the contents of my MIND, and the choices I make that are influenced from me, from the people around me, from the society I am trying to conform to, and from the devil. Use it to deal with me submitting my life to Your life.

Jesus, You have given me a free will; You have given me incredible abilities that come from being created in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:26-27). You have made me a human; and, that makes me capable of REACTING to my environment rather that being PROGRAMED by it. Teach me that God can but He won’t force me to do anything I don’t want to do. This submission issue can be very scary to me. I can fear that a supernatural being like God might do something I don’t want or like. Empower me to give God permission to give me everything I need from Him. Show me that if I don’t PRAY and ASK for it, He won’t do it. Make it clear to me that my problem with God won’t be too much influence; it will be a too gentle influence. Teach me that what God will do in my life if I don’t ask Him is, -- NOTHING!

Jesus, teach me that my relationship with God is permission based; I can’t make Him do anything that isn’t good for me and those around me; and, He WON’T do anything without my permission. Help me moment by moment and issue by issue to give God permission to take control over those things I need Him to. And teach me that in MOST cases, He will still want me to join Him as He does it in me, for me, to me, with me, and through me. Help my major concern to be that I will miss out on things I should have submitted to God.