Proclamation:
“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…” James 4:7-8 (NIV)
Explanation:
These
words were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by James, the
half brother of Jesus, to the dispersed believers during their persecution
after the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. His purpose was to encourage righteous living
and godly behavior and he gave them practical examples of how to do so.
Application:
As
Christians, we do not have to give in to the devil. We have a choice in what we do. The Bible says for us to "... Resist the
devil and he will flee..." (James 4:7) However, we cannot resist the devil by
ourselves or on our own. The beginning
of that Bible verse says, "Submit yourselves to God ..." and the
verse which follows it says, "Come near to God, and He will come near to
you ..." Only with God's help can we resist the devil. We need to get closer to God and do His will
or we do not stand a chance against the devil and his powers and the
tactics. Jesus, The Christ, has already
defeated the devil. We just need to get
on The Lord's side and use His power to resist the devil and his
temptations. The devil is busy. He
attacks us and tempts us all of the time.
If he is not bothering you, then maybe you are already doing what he
wants you to do. In order to withstand
the attacks of the devil we need to submit ourselves to The Lord and be wrapped
in the whole armor of God. (Ephesians 6:11)
We need to pray and ask God clean our minds and our hearts to help us do
His will. (James 4:8) Then if we submit
ourselves to God we can resist the devil and he will flee from us.
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