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CHRISTIANITY OASIS
DAILY BREAD DEVOTIONAL
RESIST THE DEVIL
CHRISTIANITY
OASIS HAS PROVIDED YOU WITH THIS RESIST THE DEVIL STUDY. MOST
KNOW THAT WE ARE TO RESIST THE DEVIL BUT FEW KNOW HOW TO RESIST THE
DEVIL. THE DEVIL AS A ROARING LION SEEKS TO DEVOUR THE SOUL OF EACH AND
EVERY CHRISTIAN. LET'S SEEK AND FIND THE TRUTH OF RESISTING THE DEVIL, TOGETHER, SHALL
WE?
THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JAMES
CHAPTER 4
It’s a delight to
have you back again to share more Daily Bread together. So far in our study
of James’ letter, he’s brought our attention to several things:
Trials and temptations will challenge you. Be glad. Persevere.
Ask God for wisdom.
Don’t doubt.
Desire/lust/covetousness is sin.
Good comes from God.
Act on your faith, and do good works with a meek and humble heart.
Don’t have respect of persons (prejudice).
Keep the law - Love one another and love your neighbor as yourself.
The tongue is a fire. Learn to control it.
Rid yourself of jealousy and bitterness, with peace.
James continues
with more about lust, desire, envy, covetousness . . . No matter what you
call it, it comes from the world, and the devil is the prince of this world.
Listen to what James writes.
We’re supposed to
be fighting for the same cause (Jesus), not fighting with one another, so
why are there so many disagreements among you? It stems from a war inside of
your own selves.
You want, but you don’t have.
You even kill, because you want so badly, but you cannot
obtain.
You fight and go to war, and still you don’t get, because
you don’t ask.
You ask, and are not given, because your heart is in the
wrong place.
The things you
want are to satisfy your own lusts. By doing this, you’re being unfaithful
to God, because the things you seek, are of the world, fleshly and material.
If your happiness comes from worldly things, you’re an enemy of God.
Do you think that
the scripture says in vain, The spirit that lives in us lusts to envy?
What does this
mean? It means that there is a spirit in us that desires to want things.
It’s a carnal thing . . . human nature, if you will, to be covetous. Well,
you fight, but not with one another. You fight against that natural desire
to want things. When you get rid of that hunger for “things” you will be
more at peace with yourself, and then you will get along with others easier
as well.
But, James
continues, God gives an even higher degree of
Grace. That’s why the
Proverb (3:34)
says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. You see, God
understands our human behaviors and that’s why He brought in the New
Testament with Jesus.
Now here’s a very
valuable thing to know. James says, Submit yourself to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
That’s right! The devil doesn’t want to hang out with ya if he’s gotta deal
with God all the time. Don’t get this wrong now, as long as you’re wavering,
he’s gonna mess with ya to see if you’ll jump over to his side of the fence,
but try this. Every morning, surrender your life to the
Holy Spirit
and walk in submission to, and dependent on His guidance, totally and
completely. With that kind of submission to God, evil will keep it’s
distance from you. Now, back to James.
Get close to God,
and He will get close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify
your hearts, you double minded (doubters). Be concerned, and mourn, and
weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. Don’t
talk badly of one another, friends. He who speaks evil of his brother, and
judges his brother, speaks evil of the law, and judges the law: but if you
judge the law, you aren’t a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one
lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who are you that judges
another? You’ll see in the letters from Peter and John, that they’re also
very zealous about what Jesus said is the greatest commandment as well,
Love one another,
and love thy neighbor as thy self. Here, James is pointing out that judging
one another is a consequence of the war we are fighting within ourselves.
More good advice:
Come now, those of you who say: Today or tomorrow we’ll go into a certain
city and stay there a year, and buy and sell and make a profit. But you
don’t know what will happen tomorrow, James says. What is your life anyway?
It’s like a mist that appears for a while, and then vanishes.
Instead you ought to say, If the Lord will, (If it's
God's Will) we shall live, and do this, or that.
But now you boast in your arrogance and all this kind of rejoicing is evil.
So, to him that knows to do good, and does not do it, to him, it is sin.
Have you always
wondered that? If you didn’t know something was a sin, and you did it, is it
counted as a sin? The answer is no. You have to know you are sinning, in
order for it to be sin. HOWEVER, be careful of what you say you know and
don’t know. If you aren’t sure of something and you do it anyway . . . I’d
put that in the sin column and ask forgiveness. If you have a little
feeeeeeling that it may be wrong . . . chances are, you’re dabbling in the
sin area. Don’t take chances. Ask for forgiveness. And next time, make it
your business to know before you do something. Always remember that
your sin can’t outdo God’s Grace.
As you can see,
James does write with a different point of view than Paul. Their experiences
were different. And we’re all different too. My advice is to squeeze the
grape. Here’s a little Daily Bread Crumb for ya. Squeezing the grape is
taking something and extracting all the greatness that you can get out of it
and putting it to good use.
Come and join in
again next time and we’ll do some more extracting of the last chapter of
James’ letter together, right here at Daily Bread.
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