Resist The Devil

Resist The Devil

He gives us more and more strength to stand against such evil desires. As the Scriptures say, “God sets himself against the proud, but he shows favor to the humble.” So humble yourselves before God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you. –James 4:6-8

I was shocked when I heard it, and to be honest, I’m still shocked. How could my lifelong friend leave her husband and children and move in with another man? She’s always been a person of integrity, a pillar of the church. It breaks my heart and it shakes me up because I want to think there are some sins I am above, things I would never do. But I realize that this attitude is not only prideful, it’s dangerous.

Even when we remember the things we’ve done that have caused us to hide our faces in shame and shake our heads in amazement, we think to ourselves, How could I have done that? That isn’t like me! We’re so full of pride; we don’t realize we should instead be thinking, This is exactly like me! This just reveals the core of who I am. I am a sinner who desperately needs the grace of God to do anything good. We can keep holding on to our pride, our sense of self-confidence that we would never do what we see others do, or we can humble ourselves before God and admit our evil desires and our vulnerability to the devil’s seduction. As we humble ourselves before God, we lay before him our desperate need for the strength to turn away from what we don’t have the strength in ourselves to resist.

You should know that God doesn’t want you to resist the devil merely so you can be good. He knows that what the devil offers will hurt you, and he wants you to turn away from the devil so you can draw close to him. He doesn’t want to share you. He wants to love you. As we draw close to God, we find the comfort we crave and the love we’ve been longing for. With every step you take toward him, the pleasures of the world lose their appeal, the emptiness of its entertainment is exposed, and the words the devil has whispered in your ear—tempting you to doubt God’s love and faithfulness in the face of suffering and disappointment—will be recognized as lies.

Draw me close to you, God, as I humble myself before you and draw near to you. Give me the strength to resist what the devil has convinced me will fulfill and please me. Nothing in this world can give me the pleasure that being close to you brings.

DIGGING DEEPER