Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. — James 4:7
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Thought

Let's admit it: most of us would like spiritual growth to be easy. We want our ability to withstand temptation to require little effort. We want the Holy Spirit to do the work and God to protect us from too much stress and strain. Unfortunately, our battle against the evil one and his minions is challenging and hard spiritually (Ephesians 6:10-12). Thankfully, God empowers us through his Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:17-20) and provides us with spiritual armor to resist the evil one (Ephesians 6:13-20). However, for the Spirit to work powerfully, we must intentionally submit ourselves and our wills to God as we resist the evil one. If we put up a fight against him and his temptations, he will flee from us. Let's do our part, trusting that God will more than uphold his promises and provide his power!

Prayer

Father, thank you for your presence and power in me through your Holy Spirit. Thank you for the Scriptures, which reveal to me your will. Now, dear Father, I gladly submit my will to yours, asking you to do your will in me. Please use your people and your Spirit to motivate and inspire me to resist the devil and recognize his attempts to derail my commitment to you. I ask this in the powerful name of Jesus, my Lord. Amen.

The Thoughts and Prayers for Today's Verse are written by Phil Ware. You can email questions or comments to phil@heartlight.org.


Today's Verse Illustrated

Illustration of James 4:7

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