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Resist to Submit
James 4:7
"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
The Christian life is often accomplished through opposites. What I mean by this statement is that in order to obey God I must disobey the flesh. For instance, in order to properly love I must hate. I cannot love something without hating what which will hurt that which I love. Therefore, love without hatred is not true love. Thus, the whole Christian life is accomplished by balancing the opposites of life. Whenever I get out of balance, I end up committing sin and harming my testimony.
No doubt, one of the greatest battles you will face in your Christian life is overcoming the Devil. Let me make this very clear, the Devil is a real person. If you believe in God, then you must believe there is a Devil, for God tells us that he is real. In fact, I believe that not only do most people believe there is a Devil, but most people will tell you that they hate him. Yet, the truth is most Christians end up succumbing to the Devil's temptations. Though we hate him, it is amazing how we end up listening to him. In the verse above, God gives us the way to overcome the Devil.
If you are going to overcome the Devil, then you must first submit yourself to God. The word "submit" means "to place yourself under ones authority." In other words, you will never succeed in overcoming the Devil until you place yourself under God's authority. Until you yield yourself to God and stop making yourself the authority, you will never succeed in overcoming the Devil.
Moreover, in all submission there must be resistance. Follow me carefully as I try to explain this. Submission is not doing something when you want to do it. Submission is doing something that you are told to do when you don't want to do it, and have the power not to do it. That is why God said you must submit to Him in order to overcome the Devil. There will be resistance in your attempt to submit to God. For instance, when God commands me to go soul winning, there are times when my flesh does not want to go. Thus, though my flesh may resist going soul winning, I must submit to God's authority and push myself to do it. This can be said about anything in the Christian life. Submitting to God is not easy because you will always find resistance either from your flesh or from others. Therefore, you must expect resistance when you submit to God.
Furthermore, God says the way to submit to Him is to resist the Devil. The easiest way for you to submit to God is simply to resist what the Devil tells you to do. The easiest way to submit to God's instruction to be faithful to church is to resist the Devil's invitation to stay home. The best way to submit to walking daily with God in His Word is to resist the Devil's invitation to stay in bed.
Likewise, the way to resist the Devil is to submit to God. Too many people are trying to give you all kinds of "Christian psychology" regarding overcoming the Devil when it is as simple as submitting to God. If you want to resist the Devil, then simply submit yourself to God and His authority.
Submitting to God and resisting the Devil ultimately comes down to a choice. In every choice of life, you must choose to submit to God and resist the Devil. You must understand that if you submit to God, then you are resisting the Devil. Yet, if you resist God's authority and what He wants you to do, then you are also submitting to the Devil. You simply must decide to whom you will submit. Let me encourage you to submit to God, and you will be successful in resisting the Devil.