“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7).
“God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”” (James 4:6). God dislikes pride, and has an unfavourable disposition towards it. Hence, He resists the proud. Pride was the iniquity that was found in Lucifer (Eze 28:14-15) (Isa 14:12-15), which ultimately transformed him into Satan and led to his downfall (Lk 10:18). However, God gives grace to the humble. He does not want to have to resist us because we are proud. Rather, He wants us to enjoy His grace, but only the humble can receive it. Therefore, He commands us to submit ourselves to Him as a demonstration of humility.
Our consistent position before God should be that of submission. We need to let what God thinks about us, our circumstances, and society around us, occupy our attention to the point of conditioning our outlook on life. The Bible says “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Josh 1:8). Meditating on God’s word will enable us to see ourselves as He sees us, and to call ourselves what He calls us. This is the secret of victory in life.
It is noteworthy that it is WE who are required to submit OURSELVES to God. In other words, it is our responsibility to put ourselves in subjection to God, to put ourselves under God, to subordinate ourselves to God. No-one else can do it for us. God will neither coerce, manipulate nor cajole us to submit to Him. He wants us to do it willingly.
However, God has given us His Spirit, both to empower us and to reveal of our heritage in Christ to us. God wants us to know the things which He has freely given us in Christ Jesus: “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God” (1Cor 2:12). To know these things, personally, by the Spirit, is to have received a revelation of their availability and accessibility to us. This is the kind of knowledge that births genuine faith—which enables us to receive all that our heavenly father has given us.
God has comprehensive plans for everyone of His children (Jer 29:11). He knew us before we were formed in the womb and set us apart for His own purpose before we were born (Jer 1:4,5). Therefore, He wants each of us to become a new person (Rom 12:2 NLT), who thinks, feels, and decides differently from the way the world does, and therefore, walks in the fullness of His plans for him or her. Therefore, we should never define ourselves outside who God says we are, because we are who God says we are, whether we look like it or not. God’s word concerning us should be our unchanging reality. We are who God says we are, and have what He says we have and can do what He says we can do. This is the truth, irrespective of the facts of our current situation.
Accordingly, we would do well to obey God, by submitting ourselves to Him and resisting the devil. For no life which is not yielded to God will know the joy of His full and best provision. God’s best is reserved for the willing and obedient. Shalom.