Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you
Resist the devil through submission to God, and he will flee from us.
Why will the devil flee? What causes him to flee from us?
The devil left off tempting Christ in the wilderness after Christ resisted him by using the Word of God to refute all the temptation being thrown at Him. Was this an example for us? YES!
If our Savior had to use the Word of God to resist the devil what makes us think that we won't have to do the same thing?
Sure, we aren't face to face with the devil. But we face temptations all the time. The trouble is we don't view them as temptations coming directly from the devil.
A lot of the time we seem to act instinctively towards sinning rather than not sinning. The little lie, the little misconception might pop out of our mouths without us ever truly having a debate about whether or not we want to choose to sin.
Not every temptation is forthright and time friendly. That piece of chocolate cake in the fridge beckoning to you when you've already had your piece of cake for the day, well, you have time to contemplate that cake sitting in there. You begin to war with *yourself* over the pros and cons of consuming that cake, surfeiting, gluttony are words that begin to ring in your ears. This war you are having with *yourself* is truly a war you are having with the devil though he'd much rather you just keep thinking you are only fighting yourself, it is more palpable to us to fight with ourselves than recognize the enemy of God is fighting with us wanting us to choose HIS side over GOD'S, choose HIS ways over GOD'S ways. If the devil were there physically before us, urging us to indulge in our appetites, what do you think you'd do? Would you want to give into that vile creature? If the devil were present wouldn't we have to realize that we were actually in the midst of the battle between good and evil, GOD and the devil? Wouldn't we have to realize we are making a choice between God and the devil? It's not simply a little harmless temptation at all, but a confrontation in the Spiritual battle. This is a REAL skirmish you are having and yet the devil doesn't want us to believe that at all- remember- you are warring with yourself, not him (according to him the great deceiver!)
Back to those times when you aren't contemplating some temptation, but out of nowhere you are suddenly face to face with the choice and it's an instantaneous choice, happening right then and there and uhoh, you lie perhaps to save yourself some embarrassment. Then right after you've lied you feel the weight of what you've done. You lied. You know it's wrong and the guilt is there present and accounted for and yet you don't admit you've lied, you wallow in the guilt because to confess to the one you lied to would be worse than the embarrassment you would have felt had you not lied earlier. A huge tangled web of deceit is being woven and Satan loves those webs. So there you are, you didn't have time to wage the battle, in fact you didn't have time to don your armor, you were just suddenly sinning so how do you resist that sort of sinning?
We said earlier that submitting to God is resisting the devil. How can we keep in a constant state of submission? And shouldn't we have our Spiritual armor on all the time?
We aren't perfect, we aren't sinless, only our SAVIOR is perfect and sinless. Is this an excuse we can use? The I'm not perfect excuse. No. There is NO excusing our sins away, our sins must be confessed, repented of, and they will be forgiven, but they are NOT excused.
Every single sin needs confessing and repenting of, and this is a real HEART felt repentance, not mere mouthing of the words.
We must RESIST the devil. When it is at all possible we must use our Savior's example and use the REAL word of GOD to resist satan. When we recognize we are having a spiritual confrontation we really SHOULD go to the word of God, not just try and think it away or wish it away on our own. And when things happen so fast- when we are stabbed with one of satan's darts before we even realize we are confronting him- we must confess, repent, and seek sincere forgiveness from our SAVIOR.
Remember this-- it's a couple verses I use a lot--
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord
We have a SAVIOR and it's to HIM we must always go whenever we are warring with the devil. We must go to Him and submit to Him. We must believe that He is a God of LOVE and all that He asks of us is for our own good. Every battle we are in is somehow going to make us stronger in our faith as we are refined by the fire of affliction. We must submit to our God in choosing HIM over the devil.
The devil will flee when we are submitted to God, when we choose to let God be our Savior and recognize Him as such. This is an ACTIVE submission, not a one time activation and never think about it again. This is a submission you have to CHOOSE often and always, never getting to a place where you've chosen to submit enough. Yesterday's submission does NOT guarantee your submission for today or tomorrow.
Again using the analogy of marriage- your marriage vows are renewed daily when you choose to honor them daily, right? When you choose to disregard your marriage vows, no longer honoring them, you are in danger of ending your marriage, you are putting your marriage in jeopardy. All it takes is one day of no longer honoring the vows, one hour, one minute, right? You must make the choice to honor your vows, just as we MUST make the choice to submit to our God. You are not forced to stay with your spouse, people leave their spouses daily, choosing to dissolve their marriages. You choose to stay with your marriage partner, it's a choice. And we must choose our God daily!
The devil will flee when you are fully submitted to God. Does that mean you'll never have to resist the devil again, that he'll never come back? No, absolutely not. Sometimes he'll come back right away, other times he'll wait, and every single time we must resist him by continuing to fully submit to God. And truly we must all strive to be in a constant state of Submission. Sometime it will seem as if the devil's attacks will never end. We have to remember that even if it feels like we'll never have a reprieve, or that he'll ever flee leaving us in any sort of peace, in the end when it truly matters most Satan cannot claim the eternal life of one submitted fully to God, he'll have no recourse but to FLEE! PRAISE GOD!
All by the GRACE of our GOD!
ALL through HIS LOVE!
Resist the devil through submission to God, and he will flee from us.
Why will the devil flee? What causes him to flee from us?
The devil left off tempting Christ in the wilderness after Christ resisted him by using the Word of God to refute all the temptation being thrown at Him. Was this an example for us? YES!
If our Savior had to use the Word of God to resist the devil what makes us think that we won't have to do the same thing?
Sure, we aren't face to face with the devil. But we face temptations all the time. The trouble is we don't view them as temptations coming directly from the devil.
A lot of the time we seem to act instinctively towards sinning rather than not sinning. The little lie, the little misconception might pop out of our mouths without us ever truly having a debate about whether or not we want to choose to sin.
Not every temptation is forthright and time friendly. That piece of chocolate cake in the fridge beckoning to you when you've already had your piece of cake for the day, well, you have time to contemplate that cake sitting in there. You begin to war with *yourself* over the pros and cons of consuming that cake, surfeiting, gluttony are words that begin to ring in your ears. This war you are having with *yourself* is truly a war you are having with the devil though he'd much rather you just keep thinking you are only fighting yourself, it is more palpable to us to fight with ourselves than recognize the enemy of God is fighting with us wanting us to choose HIS side over GOD'S, choose HIS ways over GOD'S ways. If the devil were there physically before us, urging us to indulge in our appetites, what do you think you'd do? Would you want to give into that vile creature? If the devil were present wouldn't we have to realize that we were actually in the midst of the battle between good and evil, GOD and the devil? Wouldn't we have to realize we are making a choice between God and the devil? It's not simply a little harmless temptation at all, but a confrontation in the Spiritual battle. This is a REAL skirmish you are having and yet the devil doesn't want us to believe that at all- remember- you are warring with yourself, not him (according to him the great deceiver!)
Back to those times when you aren't contemplating some temptation, but out of nowhere you are suddenly face to face with the choice and it's an instantaneous choice, happening right then and there and uhoh, you lie perhaps to save yourself some embarrassment. Then right after you've lied you feel the weight of what you've done. You lied. You know it's wrong and the guilt is there present and accounted for and yet you don't admit you've lied, you wallow in the guilt because to confess to the one you lied to would be worse than the embarrassment you would have felt had you not lied earlier. A huge tangled web of deceit is being woven and Satan loves those webs. So there you are, you didn't have time to wage the battle, in fact you didn't have time to don your armor, you were just suddenly sinning so how do you resist that sort of sinning?
We said earlier that submitting to God is resisting the devil. How can we keep in a constant state of submission? And shouldn't we have our Spiritual armor on all the time?
We aren't perfect, we aren't sinless, only our SAVIOR is perfect and sinless. Is this an excuse we can use? The I'm not perfect excuse. No. There is NO excusing our sins away, our sins must be confessed, repented of, and they will be forgiven, but they are NOT excused.
Every single sin needs confessing and repenting of, and this is a real HEART felt repentance, not mere mouthing of the words.
We must RESIST the devil. When it is at all possible we must use our Savior's example and use the REAL word of GOD to resist satan. When we recognize we are having a spiritual confrontation we really SHOULD go to the word of God, not just try and think it away or wish it away on our own. And when things happen so fast- when we are stabbed with one of satan's darts before we even realize we are confronting him- we must confess, repent, and seek sincere forgiveness from our SAVIOR.
Remember this-- it's a couple verses I use a lot--
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord
We have a SAVIOR and it's to HIM we must always go whenever we are warring with the devil. We must go to Him and submit to Him. We must believe that He is a God of LOVE and all that He asks of us is for our own good. Every battle we are in is somehow going to make us stronger in our faith as we are refined by the fire of affliction. We must submit to our God in choosing HIM over the devil.
The devil will flee when we are submitted to God, when we choose to let God be our Savior and recognize Him as such. This is an ACTIVE submission, not a one time activation and never think about it again. This is a submission you have to CHOOSE often and always, never getting to a place where you've chosen to submit enough. Yesterday's submission does NOT guarantee your submission for today or tomorrow.
Again using the analogy of marriage- your marriage vows are renewed daily when you choose to honor them daily, right? When you choose to disregard your marriage vows, no longer honoring them, you are in danger of ending your marriage, you are putting your marriage in jeopardy. All it takes is one day of no longer honoring the vows, one hour, one minute, right? You must make the choice to honor your vows, just as we MUST make the choice to submit to our God. You are not forced to stay with your spouse, people leave their spouses daily, choosing to dissolve their marriages. You choose to stay with your marriage partner, it's a choice. And we must choose our God daily!
The devil will flee when you are fully submitted to God. Does that mean you'll never have to resist the devil again, that he'll never come back? No, absolutely not. Sometimes he'll come back right away, other times he'll wait, and every single time we must resist him by continuing to fully submit to God. And truly we must all strive to be in a constant state of Submission. Sometime it will seem as if the devil's attacks will never end. We have to remember that even if it feels like we'll never have a reprieve, or that he'll ever flee leaving us in any sort of peace, in the end when it truly matters most Satan cannot claim the eternal life of one submitted fully to God, he'll have no recourse but to FLEE! PRAISE GOD!
All by the GRACE of our GOD!
ALL through HIS LOVE!
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