James 4:7-8- “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil , and he will flee from you. Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded.”
Order is helpful. For example, when baking cookies, the first thing that you are told to do is to turn the oven on. You know that you won’t be using the oven for a while, but having the direction to turn it on first reminds you that very soon, those cookies are going to need a warm oven to bake in! I’m sure, that like me, some of you have ignored this step and turned the oven on late. They say that watching water boil is mental torture. But waiting for your oven to heat up when you already have the cookies on the pan is its own kind of pain.
Knowing what order that God wants us to work is helpful in much the same way. If we try to do things our own way, out of his order, it feels good in the moment, but we know eventually leads to a lot of regret.
When we don’t do things in God’s order, our minds are always going to be racing and at war. When we start with our priorities instead of God’s we are already doing the opposite of what God wants us to do.
Here, James gives us the exact order in which we are to live our Christian lives.
First, we must submit.
Submission might be the hardest part. But it is the necessary first part. Letting go of control over your life and your choices is HARD. But it is absolutely one of the most important thing that you have to do in your walk with the Lord.
Submission means letting God lead you where HE wants you. It means that your life is HIS. It means that when He tells you to do something you do it. You might question it, but your questions don’t stop you from doing His order.
Submission is necessary because it proves where your heart is. It shows you what your true motive is behind everything you do. Are you doing things for God or are you doing things for yourself?
Submission is hard because it requires so much change in your life. It requires you to change your behaviors, thoughts, and actions. Submission says that you are doing things God’s way- and that will CHANGE you if you are truly being submissive.
But with submission you GAIN so much more than the enemy tells you that you will loose. With submission, you gain peace. You gain a relationship with the Lord. You gain purpose from the Lord, a purpose that will give you such a bigger life than you can ever imagine. You loose the life that the enemy has you in, but you gain the wonderful life that God has planned for you.
Resist the enemy
Dying things scream. And as you are submitting to God, the enemy is going to get loud in your life. The enemy’s goal is to keep you from God. That means that as your relationship with the enemy is dying and your relationship with God is getting stronger the enemy is going to do everything he can to get you back on his side.
We have to resist. No matter how tempting it may be, we have to stand firm and resist the enemies tactics. And these tactics are going to look different with everyone!
For me, the enemy uses fear to try and control me. For you, he might use guilt, shame, embarrassment, or anxiety to control you. When you look at the root of why you are doing what you are doing, you may be surprised. The enemy might use fear of failure, or fear of judgment, your past mistakes, your family’s opinion or any number of things to try and convince you that you need those behaviors, people, or addictions in your life.
We must resist. We must continue to resist the enemy’s attacks. Recognize when the enemy attacks you by watching your thoughts and behaviors.
Come near to God
Coming near to God is essential because it will help you learn what He wants in your life.
To submit and resist, we need to constantly be replenished with peace and purpose by God. We have to read God’s words and know with certainty His love for us and His promises to us.
It wasn’t until I started reading God’s words daily that I started learning the lessons that God wanted me to. It wasn’t until He was a main priority in my life that I was able to consistently fight the enemy with the power of the Holy Spirit in me. Because when we start our day with God’s word, we are reminded of God’s love and promises for us. When we start our day with that knowledge, the enemy will not be able to fight as strongly. We’ve already declared our day for the Lord before we’ve made any other move!
Prayer is another essential way to grow close to the Lord. Going to God is prayer is needed. In any relationship, you have to talk and communicate. The Bible is one of the most essential ways that the Lord communicates with us. We have to communicate to Him in prayer.
Not only do we communicate our needs in prayer, but in prayer we give thanks to God. We praise. When we praise, we continually recognize God’s goodness in our lives. We praise Him for loving us, for getting us through hard times, and for our daily needs being met and for the many blessings that we sometimes don’t even recognize because they have become so normal to us.
When we come near to God, we learn how to fight. We get better at submitting and resisting. We become the people that God created us to be.
Peace
When we submit, resist and come near to the Lord, we will feel peace. It is a peace like no other. It is a peace that is unexplainable. Where fear, guilt, shame and anxiety used to live, now peace is there.
But that peace only comes with submission. That peace only comes when you are constantly resisting the enemy. That peace comes when you have a relationship with the Lord.
And that peace is what you ultimately want. That joy, that no matter the circumstances, you feel because you know that your Father is in control.
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I am ALWAYS praying for you,
