Friday, December 19, 2014

REACH FOR GOD AND RESIST THE DEVIL


 

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.  Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  (James 1:7-8)

We have as much of God as we want.  We also experience victory over temptation to the degree we desire.  Reaching for God will effectually result in resisting the Devil.  There is no cause to blame God if He seems far away—He is where He has always been: near those who seek Him!  The issue is that I have moved.  My heart has not been diligent to pursue God.  Should I complain that God has not given me the power to overcome sin, then, I am again shifting blame to the wrong source.  God made a way of escape, but rather than running from the temptation, I was drawn to it by my lustful heart.  James had earlier said this,

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.  But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.  Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.  (James 1:13-15)

I cannot enjoy the presence of God and the pleasures of sin simultaneously.  The sad reality is that the same person can do both—just not at the same time.  Why would I want something other than God?  His presence is the great joy—here and hereafter.  Sin, although sweet to the taste, is poison to the soul when swallowed.  It doesn’t lead to the good life; it brings death.

Where I have sinned, it is time to come in brokenness before our God.  The cleansing fountain that flowed from Calvary has not lost any efficacy to wash my dirty hands.  My heart problem can be healed by the Great Physician, if I will but seek Him rather than my sin.  I can enjoy God’s presence today to the degree I will reach for Him.  I can experience His power over temptation in the amount that I will resist the Devil.  Vitality and victory are my birthright as a child of God.  What folly it is to choose the opposite!

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