Submit is a military word. It means take your place under. The proud will not get under anything. They run their own life and call it freedom.
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7, ESV)
Naaman knew that freedom. A great man, commander of an army, a war hero. And a leper. He hears there is a prophet in Israel who can heal him, so he shows up with horses and gold, ready to be impressed. And Elisha does not even come out. He sends word: go wash in the Jordan seven times.
Naaman is furious. He came for a show and got a command. His pride almost sends him home still sick. That is submitting to self. My way. My dignity. My picture of how it should go.
Then he gets down off his high horse and goes down into the water. Once. Twice. Seven times. Nothing dignified about it. And his flesh came back clean.
The grace was never in the river. It opened the moment he stopped insisting on his own way.
Today: Name the one area you have been controlling. Get under God’s way with it, even the undignified part.