January 6: Submit, then resist

Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you…Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.  (James 4:6-10 — New English Translation)

James quotes from the Old Testament (Proverbs 3:34) to prove his point at the beginning of this passage. When we submit to God’s commands and way of doing things, we will receive God’s power to overcome in life, but when we oppose Him we end up with a formidable foe — God Himself! He will oppose us when we insist on doing things our own way.

Notice the two commands in this passage that we have to follow, in the right order. First we have to submit to God, abandoning pride and the flesh. After we do that we will have the boldness and authority to resist the devil and demons and make them flee. They will not turn their backs and walk away, they will run. Obviously, one thing that is a part of submitting to God is putting on His armor — this enables us to fight him effectively. In addition, we have to rebuke the devil. This is not God’s job, but ours. This cannot be limited to a prayer, true resisting involves changing our thoughts and behavior. Resisting the devil involves saying “yes” to God more often, and “no” to the devil and demons more often. A pastor can pray for us and cast every demon out, but only when we submit to God and do what He wants us to do will they truly flee.

Evil has no choice but to flee when we belong to the army of the living God. Remember, the war has already been won by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross — all we are doing is enforcing it in our own lives.

We would all like to be exalted, especially by God, but this involves humbling ourselves. If we are smart we will gladly do it — the rewards far outweigh any pain or discomfort we might go through. Humility means lowering ourselves in relation to God, understanding that He is our Creator and Lord, and that we are His servants. Accepting Him as our supreme authority is something that this world increasingly looks down on — “What about you?” our flesh asks. “Don’t you have any say in this?”. The modern world sees our humble attitude as demeaning, when in fact it is a truly spiritual attitude that even the Lord Jesus had while He was on earth.

There are two things that we desperately need as we begin the new year: for the devil to flee from us, and for God to exalt us. Let’s make sure both of these things happen.