James 4:7-8 (NKJV) 7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
I recently watched a short video of a woman who was talking about people who struggle for long periods of time with specific sins.
In her video, she compared this with crucifixions. Her analogy described the long, torturous death of crucifixion with the long struggle of breaking free from a specific sin that has been hard to shake.
As part of her analogy, she used the example of someone who is married but struggles for a long time to stop desiring others after they are married.
While I understand her analogy, I disagree with it vehemently.
Here’s why.
Long struggles with a specific sin are almost always the result of us not completely submitting to God.
I know. Some who are reading this are disagreeing with me right now.
They are saying, “but you don’t know how hard it can be sometimes to shake certain things”.
And here is my response to that.
We wrestle with sin at length because we do not wholly submit to God. Not submitting to God makes it hard for us to resist the sin.
The word of God is plain and clear; Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from us.
This may seem oversimplified. But it is not.
It is 100% true, accurate and effective counsel.
Sin that plagues us for long periods of time can only do so if we fail to take ALL steps necessary to defeat it.
Some may think that this is alluding to many steps; a long, painful process of breaking free and claiming victory.
But it’s not.
The road to get there can be very long and painful for many. But this is not due to God’s weakness or lack of sovereignty.
It is due to our own weakness and our own unwillingness to RESIST the devil.
Resisting the devil doesn’t require a specific program. It does not require someone to lay hands on us and pray for us. It does not require us to confess our sin to someone else for moral support.
Those things may help. But until we passionately decide within ourselves that we are done with that sin, and we commit fully to defeating it, it will continue to hound us and plague us.
Two words are the key; submit, resist.
We need to humbly submit ourselves to God, our Creator and Redeemer, admitting that we can’t do it on our own.
And we need to ask and allow God to help us resist the devil when he comes to lure us into another snare.
It is only when we do this that we will end the struggle that swallows so many of us up as we try again and again to overcome long term sin.
Submit. Resist. Defeat Sin.
Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443
401-439-3780
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