Monday, October 24, 2011 

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

In this weeks devotion we are going to be looking at 4 verses.  James commands his readers with 10 different imperatives (command verbs):

Here are the 10 commands in these 4 verses

1. Submit
2. Resist
3. Draw Nigh
4. Cleanse
5. Purify
6. Be (afflicted)
7. Mourn
8. Weep
9. Let (your laughter be turned to mourning)
10. Humble

 

Today we are going to look at the first two commands:

1.  Submit– “to line up under”- recognize the authority of God in your life and act upon it.  Like a soldier that understands his rank, the faithful Christian recognizes and works under the authority of God.  God says go, we go.  God says don’t, so we don’t.

Song- “Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe.”

1.  Resist– “to take a stand against”- recognize the enemy that we have.  As a soldeir recognizes hi true enemy, we ought to respond to Satan only with resistance!  The worst thing we can do is not even realize we have an enemy or that we are in a war.

Submit–> God

Resist–> Satan

Notice Satan’s response–“He will flee from you!”  He is a defeated foe.

Application:

Are you being submissive to God?  Where are you trying to do things your own way and not God’s way?  God has told us what He wants in His Word.  We ought to be submissive to Him by reading and following the Bible.