Therefore, submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded people! James 4:7-8 HCSB
These two verses are ones that I quote often. There is something that we must realize. While we are here on earth, we are subject to the devil. There is a war going on between good and evil for our souls. God wants to save our souls and the devil wants to destroy them. God wants us to spend eternity with Him in heaven and the devil wants to bring us to the pits of a fiery hell.
We know that God can save us and give us eternal life. But we must also understand that this is just the beginning. We must grow and be strengthened in order to survive the devil. We must realize that the war we fight each day is not flesh and blood. We are told in Ephesians 6:10-11 that we must be strengthened by the Lord and His vast strength and that we must put on the full armor of God so that we can stand against the tactics of the devil.
In the book of Job, we learn that Job was a righteous man. God even bragged to the devil about how righteous Job was. The devil wanted to change all that. He wanted Job to curse God. We also learned that the devil could only go as far with Job as God allowed Him to do. Job came through this trial and God restored him by giving him double of what he had before.
As Christians, we are going to go through trials. We must trust that God has got our back. We must believe that all things are possible with God (Matthew 19:26). We must put on the full armor of God so that we can stand firm. Most importantly, when the devil is on our back we must submit to God. We must resist the devil.
If we fail to resist the devil, we give him a foothold. If he can get a foothold, he can bust right in and take over. This is why we must draw near to God. We must trust in Him during times of trouble. We must acknowledge Him in all we do and trust Him to guide us each and every day. We must submit to Him and love Him with all our heart. We must study His word so that we may get a deeper meaning of who He is and just how much He loves us. We must stay in constant communication with Him through prayer.
If the devil is coming against you, know that God’s got this. Submit to God, give it all over to Him. Trust in Him. And whatever you do, resist the devil. Don’t listen to his lies when he tells you that you are not good enough or you don’t deserve God’s mercy and His grace. Don’t listen to him when he tells you God can’t help you out of this one. Resist him and he will flee from you. Submit to God and send the devil packing.
Have a great weekend!