James 4:7 tells us, “Submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” We often only hear the second half of the passage quoted (resist the enemy and he will flee from you), but the first half of this passage is the most critical part. Resisting the devil is impossible without the submission to God first. I (Rick) know this first hand, because this was a struggle in my life for many years. And this is a common struggle among believers, and in my experience, especially men. When we resist God, we can't successfully resist the enemy.
As believers, we often want to continue doing things in our own strength because submission can be scary. Submission to God requires us to give up control of situations to Him and to rely on Him to handle the situation. Not having any control of a situation is uncomfortable. As a result of not submitting to God first, we end up trying to fight the enemy alone and in our own strength. This never ends successfully; trust me I know from experience. In my own life and career as a police officer, I have been trained to be IN control, so giving control over to God has not been easy to learn. However, once I came to a place of submission, life got a whole lot better for me.
The Greek meaning for the word submission in James 4:7 is such an awesome picture of how we are called to fight our battles. The word submission in this passage is the Greek word hupotasso. This word was a military term for troops arranged in battle formation under the authority of their commander. This is how we are called to fight our enemy. In battle formation, alongside other believers, under the authority and leadership of our Commander. We don’t have to fight alone, and we can't fight in our flesh or in our own strength. We fight from a place of victory when we submit to Almighty God and lean on Him to fight our battles. We just have to take the battlefield in His authority that was given to us by Jesus’ finished work on the cross through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The battle is so much easier to fight when we rely on God as opposed to trying to fight in our own limited strength. - Rick
Another word I (Amy) relate to submission is surrender. To me, it is like trying to train a horse or a dog. If the animal that a person is trying to train doesn't first surrender their will, they will never be submissive enough to be trainable and make progress in the relationship enough to be used well. This analogy helps me understand our relationship with God the Father. Not to compare humans to animals, but hey I guess we are all sheep, afterall. If we want to be used by God it is important to submit under His authority, and it requires surrender of our own will, our own understanding, our own preferences, and our own plan. As it says in Luke 9:23, "If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests', and take up his cross daily [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come], and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example of living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me].
If we continually rear our heads when the Father is trying to lead us, we are rebelling against His authority and against His will for our lives. It will cause us nothing but more grief. Sometimes this might look like allowing our emotions to get in the way of simple obedience, giving up, deciding to handle things in our own strength, or just going through the motions and not asking God the hard questions because we might already know His answer will be something that would challenge us. Like Rick said, not having any control of a situation is uncomfortable. However, in order to be submissive we need to make a decision to surrender our control to God and trust Him, the One who always knows best. It is then that we can resist the enemy successfully in our lives, as in James 4:7. - Amy
Be blessed,
Rick and Amy
