“Submit yourselves , then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

As believers we want the evil one as far away as possible… or do we. On the one hand we say, “Get thee behind me Satan.” But on the other hand we do nothing to create distance between us and him. This Scripture gives us 2 words that help us steer clear of the devil’s influence.

Submit – Submission is a word that has a very negative connotation in our culture. And yet it is a great word for believers to rightly understand because we are called upon by God to be a submissive people. It is a word that is used in Ephesians 5:22 where Scripture says, “Wives submit to your husbands.” When I counsel couples prior to marriage and explain the passage, the definition that I use for submit goes like this: submission is a wife’s willing response to her husband’s sacrificial love. Now let’s transfer that definition to James and it becomes: submission is a believer’s willing response to his/her Savior’s sacrificial love.

Submission is the grateful response to God for sending His Son to rescue us from our sin. When we thoroughly understand what Christ accomplished on our behalf on the cross then submission becomes a joyful act of obedience. It is not something believers grudgingly do but rather something that we gratefully do. Submission is an attitude toward God and His Word that says something like this: “Lord, today I want my life to be a reflection of Christ and I am willing to do WHATEVER your Word says and available to go WHEREVER you want me to go.”

Resist – Resisting the devil takes intentionality. If we do nothing he will weasel his way into our life. It will be a very subtle infiltration and before we know it we will succumb to his craftiness. So what are some practical ways that we can resist the devil?

1) Read and ponder and obey God’s Word – the Word of the Lord is the sword of the Spirit and the enemy cannot withstand the awesomeness of God’s Word.

2) Pray in the name of Jesus – you might want to think about what I mean by this. Too often we pray in our own name and for our own sake and then append the name of Jesus to our prayers – as if this magically makes what we have prayed an aromatic offering to God. Not so. Praying in Jesus name takes into account what God wants and not what we want. It is focused on His glory more than on our greediness. It results in an evidence of God’s power instead of an anemic display of our neediness.

3) Stay away from people and places that invite temptation – I have often wondered why Adam and Eve were anywhere close to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I mean they had the whole humongous Garden of Eden – why hang out around the one place that God told them to stay away from. And yet we do the same thing. We put ourselves in positions where we are very likely to be tempted. And then we wonder why we fall into sin. Resisting means not only saying “NO” to the temptations that find us but also avoiding the situations that are alluring to our sinful nature.

God’s promise is that when we submit and when we resist that the devil will have no choice but to flee from from us. So today is a good day to live intentionally for the glory of God – and a good place to begin is by submitting yourself to Him and by resisting the devil.

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10)

I have often heard it said, “Never forget, who you are and Whose you are!” This seems to be what Peter is saying here.

• God has rescued us!
• He has done this for a great purpose!
• And it ought to make an incredible difference both to us personally and to those around us!

We are not to be the “frozen chosen” but a “peculiar people” who stand out as salt and light in our world because of who we are and what has been done for us. Our activity as the saints of God is a response to what He has already done for us – not a bribe to get God to do something.

Here is a story I found from Our Daily Bread that helps to illustrate this…

As newsman Clarence W. Hall followed American troops through Okinawa in 1945, he and his jeep driver came upon a small town that stood out as a beautiful example of a Christian community. He wrote, “We had seen other Okinawan villages, . . . down at the heels and despairing; by contrast, this one shone like a diamond in a dung heap. Everywhere we were greeted by smiles and dignified bows. Proudly the old men showed us their spotless homes, their terraced fields, .. . their storehouses and granaries, their prized sugar mill.”

Hall saw no jails and no drunkenness, and divorce was unknown. He learned an American missionary had come there thirty years ear­lier. While he was in the village, he had led two elderly townspeople to Christ and left them with a Japanese Bible. These new believers stud­ied the Scriptures and started leading their fellow villagers to Jesus. Hall’s jeep driver said he was amazed at the difference between this village and the others around it. He remarked, “So this is what comes out of only a Bible and a couple of old guys who wanted to live like Jesus.”

The great power of God’s Word leads to salvation through faith in Christ, creating a “special people,” a community of believers who love one another, exhort one another, and serve God together. We need to pray that our churches will be an example of God’s power to a watch­ing world.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And  the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

One of the great gifts that God gives us when He makes our heart His home is the gift of peace. Shalom! Peace is an amazing thing. And it is an amazing work of God to bring peace to a heart that knows no peace. Sin wreaks havoc in our lives to the point where our hearts become full full of fear and worry and despair and confusion… and death. But God changes all this. There are several ways he goes about His work of transformation.

1) He reconciles us to Himself – Reconciliation is the God-initiated act of bringing about peace between Holy God and wretched sinners. Through the cross and the shed blood of Christ He declares that sin is forgiven and that those who profess their allegiance to Him by faith are no longer enemies but friends. And even more than that – children and heirs. This is the magnanimous work of grace that God does in the lives of unbelievers.

2) He empowers us with peace – This is the magnificent work that God does in the lives of believers. As we pray and relinquish to Him the fear and the worry and the despair, His promise is to fuel us by His Spirit with a peace that is beyond our understanding. Those who do not know Christ have no idea what this is like. But those who do know Him are enabled to experience peace when it seems humanly impossible. It is an amazing gift.

This is just one more “brick” that goes into the building up of believers. Listen to God’s Word regarding this brick:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1

For in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace  by the blood of his cross. Colossians 1:19-20

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. 2 Thessalonians 3:16

Remember Lot’s wife.” Luke 17:32

This may seem like a strange verse to pick as a foundational verse but there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. Those 3 words couched in the middle of a talk about Jesus’ 2nd coming have a lot of meat to them when you take the time to think about them. So what is it that we are supposed to remember when we remember Lot’s wife…

We should remember…

1) …That the things of this world are like “skubala” – Yes, you read that right. Skubala is a word that Paul uses in Philippians 3:8  to describe how he felt about everything in comparison to knowing Christ. It is often translated dung – but it really has a more profane connotation if you smell what I’m saying. Lot’s wife was having a hard time letting go of all the stuff that she was leaving behind as she fled Sodom (see Genesis 19) with her family. We need to remember that as much as we like our “stuff”, it is still just stuff – and if it gets in the way of our relationship with God then perhaps it is better to get rid of it.

2) …That disobedience is costly – Lot’s wife was clearly told, “Don’t look back!” (Genesis 19:17). Her disobedience cost her her life. I’m sure she was thinking “what harm can a little look back do.” Or perhaps, “God won’t notice if I just steal a quick peak back at my home for the last 25 years.” She did exactly what most of us tend to do – justify our disobedience. She did not understand how costly disobedience can be – and neither do we.

3) …That “God takes us out to bring us in” – There are times in our lives when we are called upon to leave a person, place or thing that we have grown to love. It might be a relationship, it might be a job, or a church, or a city. It might be a house or any number of things. This much I know: if God calls us to leave, He has a purpose behind it and a future planned for us. But to get to where He wants us to be we have to go through the difficult part of letting go, saying goodbye, and leaving behind. Lot’s wife tried to hang on to what she had – she had a hard time believing that the future God had in store for her was going to be better than the past she was leaving behind.

4) …Not to forget! -So when Lot’s wife looked back she was turned into a pillar of salt. There is a rock formation near the Dead Sea that is called “Lot’s Wife.” It is a monument of remembrance. We have these all over the place. The Holocaust Museum. The Vietnam Memorial. The National September 11 Memorial and Museum. Gettysburg. The Empty Tomb. Jesus adjures us to “Remember Lot’s wife!” Why? So that we never forget. Never forget that we were made for eternity. Never forget that our hearts will be restless until we find our rest in God. Never forget that that the consequences of disobedience are brutal. Never forget that the purposes of God are glorious and so much greater than the purposes of man. Never forget that we have been bought with a price. Never forget that the joy of the Lord is ever and always our strength.

Never forget…. to remember!

“Remember Lot’s wife!” There’s a lot there to remember – pun intended.