Submit and The Resist James 4:7

7Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.



Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Living a victorious Christian life is not really that difficult; all we have to do is submit ourselves to God. When you and I make the decision to live for Him, we have taken the first and most important step in being victorious over sin in our lives. James writes, “Draw near to God and He will draw near unto you.” When we are willing to take that step and determine in our minds to do so, we can then resist the devil and he will flee from us.

We make a couple of mistakes in this area of our lives. The first mistake we make is we try to resist the devil without first submitting ourselves to God and drawing near to Him. We must remember that our strength to resist the devil does not come from within; our strength comes from the Lord. When we determine in our hearts that we are going to take God by the hand and live our lives according to His will and His way as set forth in His Word, His strength becomes available for us to resist the devil and the devil will flee.

God never expected us to do this on our own! He knows that we cannot do it on our own. The truth is, until we draw near unto God and submit ourselves to Him, there is not only no strength to resist the devil but there is no real desire to do so! Our pride is the one thing that keeps us from drawing near unto God. This is why James goes on to say, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up!”

God created us and He sustains us and gives us life. It does not make sense not to draw near unto God and humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord so that He can lift us up and draw near unto us so that in His strength we might be able to resist the devil and he will flee from us. Life really is that simple if we will just do it!