Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. — James 4:7-8
This is an important verse to apply to our lives. James is a great book to read. He starts out in James 1 by saying that we're to have joy in the midst of our trials. Why, because we know that God is allowing them in our lives in order to make us more like His Son, Jesus. He also uses our trials so that we will show ourselves faithful and reliant on Him to those around us, in spite of our trials, thus showing them the goodness and faithfulness of The LORD.
He continues in James 1 by telling us where sin comes from, us! We sin because we want to. No one can make us sin, no circumstance can cause us to sin, though we are all born sinners, we all choose to sin and therefore are on our way to hell because all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God! (Romans 5:12, Ezekiel 18, Romans 3:23)
But the story didn't end there. About 2000 years ago God sent His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth, born a man, yet still God! Jesus was unjustly accused and sentenced to death. He gladly took the punishment given Him because He knew that if He didn't, no one would ever get to spend eternity in heaven with Him and God the Father! (Luke 2:1-20, 1 John 3:5, Hebrews 12:1-2)
So, to the cross an innocent Man, Jesus, went and died, even though He had never sinned His entire life! He shed His blood and died so that you and I don't have to experience an eternal death, hell. He then rose again on the third day, which we celebrate this week as Resurrection Day, or Easter. Once and for all the penalty of sin and eternal death in hell has been paid. And He did all of this for us while we were still sinners, we didn’t have to become sinless and then He saves us, He did it ALL! (Romans 5:6-8) Now all of those who believe in Jesus and make Him LORD of their lives, can spend eternity in heaven with The LORD God Almighty! (Matthew 27-28, John 3:16-21, John 3:36, 1 Corinthians 2:9, Galatians 6:7-8)
Once we're saved, we just can't run around doing whatever we want. As James says in the passage above, we're to submit ourselves to The LORD. To submit means that we do what God has told us to do and don’t do what He’s told us not to do as per His instructions to us in The Bible.
The devil will still try to get us to sin, but here James tells us to resist him. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:13, God will not allow us to be tempted in any way that we have to sin. James says here, resist satan, just don’t give in! No need to rebuke him, don’t see that here, just don’t give in. A heart surrendered to Jesus, filled with The Holy Spirit, plugged into the Body of Christ, and serving Him, is less prone to fall into sin than the one that is on the fringes! Satan roams around like a roaring lion, seeking who he can devour and lions prey on the weak and those on the outskirts of the herd. (1 Peter 5:8-9)
That’s the put-off, so what’s the put-on, what are we supposed to do instead? James tells us here that we’re to draw near to God. And how do we do that, by reading, studying, and memorizing God’s Word and praying and worshipping Him, all in fellowship, discipleship, and with other believers!
When we desire to be where God is and do what He wants us to do, He is even closer to us. I realize that God is everywhere and The Holy Spirit lives in each and every believer, but that doesn’t mean we can’t push Him aside. Just like when you’re mad at your spouse and choose to hold a grudge and not have anything to do with them. You’re still married, even in the same house and possibly the same room, but you’re choosing to distance yourself from them. When you desire to please The LORD and obey Him, the fellowship you have grows and grows and grows!
We need to quit running around this life doing whatever we want to do. We need to quit sinning. We need to wash our hands of the wrongdoing in our lives, purify our hearts by living our lives for Him and quit living lives that are full of double standards. We say we believe, we hear The Word, the Holy Spirit lives in us, yet our lives oftentimes say the opposite! We need to quit deceiving ourselves about our relationship with Christ. STOP IT!! (James 1:21-25)
It doesn’t take much looking around us to see how frail and short life on this earth is. Whether we die of old age in our 90’s because our body gives out, in a traffic accident, or of a virus, one thing is for sure, we will all one day die. We need to be busy about The LORD’s business and quit chasing after this world as if we have all the time to do whatever we want. We don’t! We need to quit thinking about ourselves and instead consider the preciousness of other’s souls and where they’ll spend eternity. That is ALL that matters on this earth for a Christian, period!!
Make this your life’s goal today and every day. Choose this day who you will serve, as for me and my house, we will serve The LORD! (Joshua 24:15)
If you don’t know Jesus as your personal LORD and Savior, please reach out to us or someone who can help you know Him. What better time of the year to remember coming to know Jesus than the week and day we celebrate His death and resurrection, what Jesus did for us to be able to spend eternity with Him in heaven!
Our sole goal in being on this earth is to draw others to The LORD and then help them become more like Him. Don’t hesitate to ask us to help you in any way!
Please don't hesitate to reach out to us with any questions, prayer requests, etc. We'd love to pray with and for you and to the best of our ability answer any questions you may have soley using God's Word!
Love y’all and LORD Bless,
Curt & Mary Jo
Note-all Scripture references in parenthesis are direct links God's Word so that you can easily click and read what The LORD has to say about the section before the reference. I encourage you to click, read, study and even memorize these passages for yourself and NOT to just not just take my word for it. (Psalm 119)
