In the midst of joy, we still experience trials. I can attest to this. But in my Bible study today, I had a few verses jump out at me. The first is James 4:7 “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
Just take a second and read that again. Now, visualize what submission to God looks like. In my perception, it means our whole self, our whole world. “Submit yourselves, then, to God.” is an absolute statement. There are no exceptions there. We are to take everything in our hearts, our minds and our souls and lay them down before God. THAT is not an easy feat. Oh, yes, it’s easy to say that we have done that but really think about it…...have we truly put everything of importance to us, at His feet? Let’s make sure that we do because it is apparently crucial to the second part of this verse.
“Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” THIS is the even more exciting part for me. According to this verse, surrendering to God means that I can, WE can, in resisting the devil, make him flee from us! How awesome is that?! In the midst of our tests, we don’t have to feel like we are helpless to his attacks! We don’t have to feel like losers! We have been given the answer as to what to do…...Surrender to the Lord and resist the Devil.

Then I saw an elaboration in Romans 8:37 “….in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” So, how are we conquerors? Through Jesus. His amazing love and the grace that was made possible to us through the shedding of His blood, can provide us with supernatural strength to withstand the attacks of the enemy. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” Not only do we need to have no fear of the enemy due to Jesus Christ but we should remember that the Bible says more than once that we have power. God-given power. Supernatural power to fight our enemy AND succeed!
So, let us not be engulfed by fear and doubts when we are tested. Let us remember to surrender our lives, resist the enemy and stand resolute in the spirit of God-given power and Jesus’ love. THEN, the enemy WILL flee from us and we CAN win!
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