Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7 KJV
The Context:
James, the brother of John the Beloved, is credited with writing this book. He talks a lot about the Christian experience, and all that will come the way of the believer. This chapter from which today's extract is taken starts off with a warning or admonition or counsel on how to ask the right way, if I want to receive that which I ask for. A lot of times, we come with the heart of entitlement, thinking that God owes us for all we have done for him. We forget that outside of his grace and mercy, we won't be alive. If only we would take time often to think about our mortality and our limitations, maybe we will see ourselves as God sees us and take steps that line up with his will for us.
James talks about the dangers of pride. God is not one to brook any competition for my attention. It is either he is all I got, or he simply takes a back seat and watches how my life will pan out. Things may look good; men of the world will even envy what I have, but if it is not of God, it will not last. What then is expected of me, as I seek to be all that God would have me be?
The Message:
The secret to a life that God can use lies in the secret place of humility. It appears that it is my own responsibility to bring myself under the mighty hand of God. If I have to pray that God should humble me, it could mean that things have already gone wrong. Before God has to do it, I must learn to do it by myself. That is why today's extract starts with the words: submit yourself to God.
There are two interesting definitions of 'submit' that we should consider here: 'accept or yield to a superior force or to the authority or will of another person.' and 'subject to a particular process, treatment, or condition.'. There is a personal as well as a situational perspective to these definitions. You cannot claim submission to a person and then resist his dealings and authority over you. The one I submit to owns my life and my time, and can dictate all about my pursuits and priorities. Oh and it matters to whom you submit. People claim to be masters of their own destinies. In the event that you have never heard this before, let me be the first to tell you: you own or hold nothing. All you are, have and hold are gifts from God, the real owner of you and to whom you will definitely give an account of your life.
And don't assume that because you are submitting to God, the devil will make it easy for you. Satan came to Jesus after he had finished fasting for 40 days and nights. In Jon, the devil came even when the sons of God came to present themselves to God. The devil has no issue with offering you alternatives even while you are seeking to submit to God. That is why the full package of God's dealings also includes resisting the devil. It also appears to me that the role of resisting is mine; God will provide the grace and the strength, but I am the one that will draw the line.
Resisting the devil may require a good running away like Joseph before Potiphar's wife; it could be standing boldly and declaring for God in public, even in the face of certain death like the 3 Hebrew boys. It could lead to certain death like Stephen, and it could lead to problems like the lions' den for Daniel. But in all these cases, even in death, God was glorified and the people involved gained eternal life. You do not want to know what the alternatives to eternal life with God are. Do I want to come to the end of my life and realise that God never had a hold of my heart and life at all? That would be a life of regrets. All he asks me to do is trust, rely, depend and draw on the grace and strength he has already provided. He will uphold and keep, and the devil will be unable to stay and oppress.
The promise is that the devil will respond to my resistance and he will flee. A warning though: even for Jesus, the devil only left him for a season. The devil never stops looking for how to steal, kill and destroy, which means that I have a lifelong duty to also keep submitting to God and resisting the devil. And the order is important: if I cannot submit to God, I will not have the power to resist the devil. That order is important; it is the secret to a life of victory and impact.
The Response:
As you look at the life of this writer, you see the truth of today's passage. Here was James, put to the sword by King Herod. No drama, no fuss. He was just killed, and only one verse of the Bible mentioned it. Am I ready for the fire that is coming? God's love makes it a guarantee that I will always have what I need to succeed at life; the issue will be whether I trust God enough to let him work in and on me, so I can be all that I can be. His time of favour is here.
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