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 … Humble yourselves
before The Lord, and He will lift you up.” James 4:7-10 (NIV)
EXPLANATION
These words
were written by James, the half-brother of Jesus, The Christ, (Galatians 1:19)
under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God, to the believers who scattered
after the crucifixion of Christ. (James 1:1) He wrote this letter to
provide them with practical advice on Christian living. He begins this
fourth chapter by telling them that they desire things which are for their
pleasure. They pray and ask for the wrong things and that is why their
prayers are not answered. (James 4:1-3) He said that they act like worldly
people and that those who like the world are enemies of God. (James 4:4)
He tells them that they need to submit themselves to The Lord God and resist
the devil. If they humble themselves before The Lord, He will lift them
up. He ends by telling them that to know what is right and to choose not
to do it, is to commit a sin. (James 4:17)
APPLICATION
Most believers
like this verse because it says that if we resist the devil that he will flee
from us. There are two problems with this; first, we do not have the
power to resist the devil on our own.
Second, the devil is not afraid of us and we can’t make him leave us
alone. We missed the first part of this Bible verse which says that we
need to submit ourselves to The Lord God.
If we would first submit ourselves to God, then He will give us the
power to resist the devil and cause him to flee from us. We need to keep
in mind that we by ourselves are nothing and powerless. It is only by the
grace, strength, and help from The Lord God that we are able to accomplish
anything. We need to humble ourselves before Him. We should not
even talk about the things that we are going to do, or are planning to do,
without acknowledging Him. We should say
that we will do whatever it is if it is The Lord’s will. (James 4:13-16)
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