THE Wiles Of THe Devil

THERE IS A WAY OUT (James 4:1-10) "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil,r and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.s Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts,you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up". (James 4:7-10) Peter (1 Peter 5:8) and James (James 4:7) speak of the choices to stand strong in staying vigolrnt in your spiritual walk. Be able to resist temptation, Paul, speaks of how the Israelites had said yes to the temptations in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:1-11), then he warns the Corinthian christians: “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful . . . . When you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it” (vv. 12-13). Paul has a way of saying it, that fleeing youthful lusts, a lot of the time means more than just saying no, it involves running in the other direction. Like Joseph did, as he left his coat behind in the hands of his abductrous and run. Paul says, we’re to “flee from idolatry” (v. 14) and “sexual immorality” (6:18). The Holy Spirit helps us to stand firm against the enemy, He will also give us the legs and the strength it will take to run when we need to. That is one thing the devil does not do, is run, no He lingers,James warns us of that, even after we have given our lives to the Lord, the devil hangs around, and tempts us, always looking for a chance for us to give Him a foothold back in our lives again. James says of we “Resist the devil, he will flee from us” (4:7). Friends listen, I know from experience, our struggles often come from impure thoughts or “desires” and “wrong motives” (vv. 1, 3)— there is pride that sneaks in, selfish ambisions and impure thoughts as the things he often uses to trap us, or to get us to fall, because those things tend to want you linger in our hearts. our hearts. James offers us two commands we can use against the enemy, first “submit . . . to God” and second “resist the devil” (v. 7). Submit to God means surrendering "everything" to God. Then when we resisting the devil activelly speaking against Him in in Jesus name, as we conciously pray with vigilance and meaning using the wisdom of Scripture to defeat Him. As a landlord kicks out a bad renter from thier house, so it is in God’s strength we can kick the devil out of our lives and refuse to let him tempt us into doing and falling for the temptation. So then as we resist him, God gives us the victory, yes, “He will flee from you” (v. 7). When we kick sin out and say no to the devils influances, we will draw near to God and we will grow stronger.. (v. 8), in doing so we are allowing the peace of God to flow into our lives and the joy of the Lord is pour strength, God gives us a purpose and a reason to live and dwell in Him more and more as we grow in our faith and understand and know God more. Remember the devil cannot dwell in a place where God is in control. Friends listen, if you have given a foot hold to the devil in your life, it not to late to kivk out that bad renter.. If you are serious, you can pray and ask God to evict Him from your life? God will take control and give you back your life all you need to do is submit to Him.God will not force you, He will not kidnap you, He want you eo willingly submot, so He can set you free. Pray with me -Sovereign God, I want to surrender to you this morning, I want to surrender every part of my life to You. I am asking for the strength and the power to resist the devil and stand firm by drawing closer and closer to you, today and every day of the rest of my life. I want to learn more and more about standing firm against the devils plans to divert my attention away from you. Lord, I know you are the only one that can truly stand against Him, so I want to stand in your power today. It is in your name I pray AMEN.