James 4:7

NIV: Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

The Message: So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper.

This sounds so straightforward, doesn't it? Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee. Yet in real life, we each have troubles, worries, ill health and all sorts. Some of this may be just life, circumstances, but some of it may well be spiritual attack, and what do you do then if despite your best efforts at submitting and resisting, things go from bad to worse?

Looking at the Oxford English Dictionary, this is the definition of submit:

submit

• verb (submitted, submitting) 1 accept or yield to a superior force or stronger person. 2 subject to a particular process, treatment, or condition. 3 present (a proposal or application) for consideration or judgement. 4 (especially in judicial contexts) suggest; argue.

Accept or yield to a superior force or person. So this is all about obeying God, submitting to His will for our lives, following His way. Somewhat like being in the army when you have to follow the orders of your superior officer. So no matter what is happening in our lives, we need to trust in God, trust that He knows best no matter what the circumstances.

Imagine being in the army fighting a war. You’re out there on a mission led by an officer. The enemy are all around you and the officer is issuing orders to enable you all to fight your way out, hopefully successfully. So what do you and the rest of the men do? Stop and question the officer? Have a group discussion about whether you should take a stand on this hill, or in that grove? Question whether some of the men should be left behind the trees or whether they should be at the front taking cover behind a dip in the road? Do you start telling the officer he is completely wrong and it should be done this way, that way, or another way?

No, you are in the army, trained to obey orders. No matter what you may think of those orders, whether you agree with the officer's decision or not, you are trained to obey. You have to trust the officer, he has the training and may well know far more about the situation you are in than you do. Also, you have to obey because otherwise, you'd be up on a disciplinary charge, possibly court-martialled.

Yes, I know this is simplifying things, and you can probably tell the closest I've been to being in the army is reading of soldiers' exploits in a book, but the principle is true when it comes down to us and God. He is our commanding officer, and whether we like his orders or not, whether we think we know better or not, we should obey. But so often, we think we know better, we think we can cope on our own, manage without bothering God, because after all, he's got more important things to worry about than sorting out our finances, our health, our marital problems, trouble with the children, with the neighbours, problems at work/school/college and all those other things that may be troubling us.

In actual fact, when we do this, when we try and cope on our own, we are actually ignoring God, rejecting His help, His support, demeaning Him by effectively saying He can't get us out of the mess we are in, so why bother Him in the first place. We're really saying that God isn't powerful enough to help. What does God tell us?

Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Deuteronomy 33:26 There is no-one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty.

Psalm 18:6 In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.

Palm 22:24 For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help

Isaiah 58:9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

Mark 10:27 Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need

*all the above taken from the NIV

We are told to lay everything before God. Not just the big things or the ones we think we can't handle, or the things that we consider too trivial for God to be bothered with. Each and every single one of our burdens we are told to lay before Jesus, and He will give us rest. This means the worries about money, about paying the bills, getting/keeping a job, exam worries, concerns over loved ones, health problems. It also means things like finding a car parking space on market day, having no traffic holdups on a long journey, being able to sort out what to do on a job without spending ages trying different solutions, and all those million and one other things we each do every day. And why? Because for God, nothing is impossible, absolutely nothing. He can heal, He can provide the finances, the support, the comfort.

It's not a case of submitting to God on Sundays and going our own way the rest of the week, or only listening to God when the sun is shining, or when we remember. No, this is something we need to be doing all the time, each and every day, not as and when we choose. After all, in an army, how would it be if the men only obeyed the officers when they felt like it, or when they remembered to obey? It needs to be something that is second nature, that we do all the time consciously and subconsciously.

And what happens when we submit to God? When we give Him the authority, the control in our lives, when we look to Him for to supply all we need? We are no longer relying on our own abilities, our own strengths and weaknesses, but we are relying, depending, on God's and for God, nothing is impossible, nothing. The great thing is, we don't have to worry about what we can do to sort out finances, a situation, health and so on, because as Paul tells us:

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. (NASB)

That means you, me, we can all do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

As Christians, we really need to start trusting God more and to stop relying on our own capabilities. We will never match up to what God can do for us, and when we become Christians, we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Since the Holy Spirit, Christ and God are three in one, one in three, indivisible, that means we have Christ, we have God living within us. I know it all sounds a bit like the three musketeers or something out of Star Trek, but what it boils down to is that God lives within each one of us and when we really believe this,. When we know in our heart of hearts that we have been given the power, the authority from Christ to do the things He did whilst on earth, and more:

John 14:12 I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works (NLT)

We have been given the same power that Jesus has, the same power that was used by God to resurrect Jesus:

Ephesians 1:18-21 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

So we need to submit to God, to really believe the word of God, the bible, and use the power we have been given. Resist the devil, using the power and the faith we have, and he will flee. It is not a case of him going away tomorrow, next week, next year or in twenty years time. When we resist the devil using the power and authority we have been given in Christ Jesus, when we put our faith into action and actually use the a sword of the Word of God, then the devil will flee. He will have no alternative because he has no authority over believers unless we give it to him.