Adam’s justification for being angry about his circumcision began with the following three points:

My body is my property.
I should have the right to say what is done to my own property.
People permanently damaged my property without my permission.
Notice how Adam is focusing on rights here. We humans are very good at fussing about our own rights, but we don’t spend nearly enough time contemplating all of the rights God has as the Supreme Authority. God says that everything He creates is His property and He can do whatever He wants with His own stuff. God also says that He reigns with absolute sovereignty over everything that He creates. This means that no one circumcised you against God’s will. God knew what your parents wanted to do and He provided a way for them to do it.

When we try to downplay our dependency on God, we end up in a mess. In the Bible, God makes it clear that none of us can do anything apart from Him. He isn’t just our Creator, He’s also our Sustainer, and that means that you can’t even walk to the mailbox unless God enables you to do so. God is not like a human ruler who sits on a distant throne unaware of most of the activity in his kingdom. God is an omnipresent micro-manager who is intimately involved in every aspect of our affairs. God says that you are His property, and that He is always guarding you. He says that troubles don’t just fall on you, but that He intentionally creates troubles in your little world to give you opportunities to develop a richer bond with Him. God says that this circumcising event which troubles you so much was something He brought into your life on purpose. He knew how upset you’d be by it before He even did it, but He still did it. Why? Because the experience is packed with the potential to draw you closer to Him. Consider our man Adam. He’s a Christian, and he considers himself to be sincerely committed to God. But he’s also got some obvious holes in his theology because he feels he can justify his anger over getting circumcised by waving the rights card. Adam says “My body is my property.” But God says, “Actually, your body is My property and I’m the One who gets to say what happens to it.” Well, Adam doesn’t like this. If we’re honest, none of us like this, because we take serious issue with God inflicting misery on us. Well, here is where we come to another concept which is absolutely critical to you developing a close bond with God: submission.