Through this letter, James seems to be quite good at telling people off doesn’t he?! He has a lot to say about how we can get living a life of faith wrong. He shows that how we behave, speak, conduct ourselves and use our intelligence matters. It matters to God, so it should matter to you. In this letter James has been instructing and explaining how to be wholeheartedly devoted to the faith you have because he wants you to take following God seriously. He has been pointing out several issues to help you really consider what your life is about and what you are living for. Are you living for God, the world or yourself?
If you want to follow God other things need to give way and you need to assess the way you are living and speaking if you want to grow as a disciple and become wise. Have you been taking onboard James’s instructions? And as you consider your life, are you honouring God with it all or not at all?
Living a life honouring God means considering; your speech, how you treat others, how you suffer, being fair, considerate, putting into practice acts of faith, gaining wisdom, being quiet, avoiding arguments and getting out of sin - it is a lot, and it sounds like hard work. How can you really get there?
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
James 4:7–8 (ESV)
They key to gaining ground in your life with the things that James has been pinpointing, and that you know are growth points for you, is this; 'Submit yourselves therefore to God.' If you really want to overcome and grow as a follower of Jesus, then you have no choice but to submit. Submitting to God means putting yourself under His authority, allowing God to have the say over every area of your life. Letting Him choose how you live, speak and behave, in the big things as well as the small ones. The faith you have in God should be evidenced by how you submit to Him. As a follower of God you cannot just keep doing whatever you want. What you do, say, watch, listen to, attend, even what you eat and drink, where you work, rest and relax - all of this should be submitted to God, is it? You will be tempted to just keep hold of and in control of the things you want because you like them, you want them, you feel they are ok, but is the hold those things have on you ok? What may be ok for someone else to have or do may not be ok for you because you know it causes you an unease or anger if those things could be taken away. Those things need to be submitted to God because it will give you freedom. It is part of resisting the devil. The enemy wants you to be stuck and restricted in your faith and to doubt how much you really love God and want to follow Him. The devil loves half-hearted, non-commital christianity.
James doesn't want you to fall for the enemies schemes of complacency. The word of God says, 'Resist the devil, and he will flee from you'! Once you have decided to submit to God and do what He wants rather than your own way, you will be able to say no to what you know you need to, and once you have stood firm and resisted, the enemy will run away - that’s a promise! Just as you run away from sin and temptation, even those little things that you could persuade yourself don't matter, as you run away from those, the enemy will scarper! Why? because you are positioning yourself more into God's presence. You are choosing to get close to God, and the devil cannot go there.
'Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.' If you choose to submit to God, turn away from the devil and invest in your relationship with God, then God will get close to you. God is waiting. He is waiting for His invite into your life. He is waiting for you to give up the old, to break free from what is hindering you, to give up on sin. He is waiting to get in close to you and your life so that you can know His love, compassion, mercy and friendship in greater measure.
So today we have seen that there are two promises in today’s verse; resist the devil and he will flee, and get close to God and He will come close to you. Do you want to see the enemy running from you and know the presence of God more in your life? Both of these promises stem from the command to submit to God - that’s how you get that relationship with God on a new level, that’s how you overcome sin, that’s how you can grow as a disciple and in wisdom. So what are you going to choose to live for from today? What are you choosing to submit to?
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