Resist the Devil

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
(James 4:7, KJV)

When we go through miserable times, when we suffer, we often will do strange things. We attempt to cope with the situation with a variety of behaviors. What are these behaviors? Well, prior to their conversion, people develop certain ways to cope with difficulties. These coping mechanisms have been naturally ingrained in their lives. These may include anger expressed in internal bitterness or outward fits of rage. Sometimes they may involve substance abuses, drugs, alcohol, gluttony, etc. Sometimes it may be to withdraw from people. You name it, there are many ways that people respond.

After one’s conversion coping with life is to be accomplished by resting by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to trust in His sovereignty, His presence, and His power. However, some believers, when under extreme distress tend to fall back to their previous coping mechanisms. They will withdraw from their fellowship in Christ and with other believers. This leaves them vulnerable to further attack from the adversary of the saints, the devil.

Some, but not all the struggles we endure in life may be a direct attack of the devil. These are designed to cause us to revert to the former coping mechanisms and falter in our walk of faith. A prime example of this is seen in the life of Job. You will remember that Satan approached God and sought Him for a righteous person to torment. The righteous person was Job and Satan sought to cause Job to turn away from his faith in God. Yet through the most severe of struggles, Job would not deny the Lord.

One of the greatest temptations we have when going through extreme trials is to drop out of fellowship and serving the Lord. This plays right into the devil’s plans. If we have the physical strength, we must fight the temptation to feel sorry for ourselves and continue the Lord’s plan and purposes for our lives. I know of many who have fought hard to serve the Lord amid the most severe trials. Yet others who professed Christ have allowed the slightest of issues hinder them in their Christian walk, withdrawing from fellowship.

When I was diagnosed with bladder cancer, I was serving as the interim pastor of a medium sized church. I went through two surgeries on my bladder to remove the tumors. As I went through this, I had this very thought. “I am not going to give the devil the victory in this.” I stated, “As long as I have breath and the strength, I will serve the Lord.” You know, the Lord gave me the strength to continue to minister in that church throughout that time. The folks in the church fully expected that I would take much recovery time. Yes, I did work a lot from my home office, and yes, I was a bit weak after the surgeries. Yet I only missed one Sunday service at the church and that was because I was uncertain as to the recovery process after the first surgery.

I hope I am not seen as bragging, but giving the glory to God. The point I want to bring out is that we cannot allow the devil to get the victory, that is to pull us away from fellowship and the call to serve Him. So, how do we do this?

James gives us the answer. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7, KJV) It seems a simple thing, but it is not. Yet the formula we have has only two parts. They are to submit and to resist. We are to submit to God. The verb “submit” is a passive command which means to subordinate ourselves. Like a soldier in the military who submits to his superior, we must submit our lives to the will of God and obey Him. This is the first step. Often in the military a soldier is asked to exert energy to do things that are very uncomfortable. In the Christian faith we are to continue to submit to the Lord our God even in times of trials and temptations.

The second thing we see is that we are to resist the devil. The verb “resist,” also is a command, which means to stand against, to oppose. We are to oppose the efforts of the devil to take us away from the fellowship and purposes of God in our lives. Now, this may not be easy, but by God’s grace it is possible.

But what if your submitting and resisting does not work immediately? The thing with this is that when you submit to God and resist the devil, the devil may not flee immediately. Yet the Scripture indicates that the devil will flee from you. The question is this. When will the devil flee? That question is not determined in the text. The verb translated “will flee,” is in the future tense. It is a statement of future deliverance. The question for us to ponder is not when. What we are to understand is the affirmative that he will flee. More than this, what is important is our posture during the trials and temptations. We are to keep on submitting and to keep on resisting regardless of how long it takes.

Why is both submitting to God and resisting the devil essential in deliverance? You might ask, “Can we not just resist the devil?” The answer to these questions should be obvious. Resisting the devil’s ploys is a spiritual endeavor. It is not withing human strength to win in this battle. It is only by God’s grace that one will have the strength to overcome the wiles of the devil in times of severe trials and temptations. Without submission to God, one will never have the strength of God’s grace to overcome. Therefore, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”