Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. James 4:7
As Christians, we face three primary enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. Victory over these three enemies is essential for a life of service for our Lord. Wouldn’t it be great if we could rid ourselves of one or two, or even all three, of these enemies who attack and challenge us daily? We can do little about the world, we have to live in it and work and react with its occupants. We can’t escape the flesh within whose bounds our souls are pent. But our text today tells us we can indeed put the devil to flight! That being the case, we ought to do so by resisting him.
To resist the devil, we must first know his motives. He is really not interested in us; his primary motive is to deprive God of the glory that is rightfully His. So we need to resist the devil when he entices us to neglect time in God’s presence, times of worship and service. We need to fight back when the devil seeks to interfere with our fellowship with our Father. We also need to understand the devil’s methods. Paul could say that we are not ignorant of the devil’s devices. But I don’t think Paul was speaking for us all, so many of us seem to be unaware of the ways in which the devil sets about interfering with our spiritual lives. With thousands of years of experience, he has many means of attacking us, of filling our lives with worldly and carnal companions, of spreading before us a broad spectrum of media to occupy and contaminate our minds, of enticing us to dabble in sin and wasteful endeavour…oh, my, the list could go on and on and on.
But we also need to be aware of the devil’s weaknesses. No, we cannot tackle him on our own, but we have dwelling within us One who is more than his match. Resisting the devil is as simple as submitting ourselves to God, as our text states, by yielding ourselves to the Holy Spirit’s direction in all facets of our lives. The devil cannot stand before fervent, effectual prayer, the reading of God’s Word, the worship of the Lord Jesus, and the fellowship of God’s people.
Would you keep the devil on the run? Resist him by submitting to God. -Jim MacIntosh