The message today was on the right response when desire, lust, gotta-have-it-now, has you by the throat. The text does not just say, “resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Many Christians have felt ripped off by God because they did resist the devil, and then again some more, and then they resisted still more. And when they did resist, he did not flee, he did not go away, he did not vanish. Rather, he pressed in all the more, holding their feeble efforts at resisting temptation in contempt.
And in our discouragement, we ask why God lied to us. Why did He say, “resist the devil, and he will flee from you”?
The answer is that He did not say that. He said, “Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Too many of us want to fight the devil as free agents, to do what we do on our own terms. We don’t want to obey God, we want to do what we think is the right thing, and we would do it, if the devil would only flee. But he doesn’t.
The fundamental issue is orientation to God. Submit to God. How do we do that? We do it by coming to His Word, and coming to His ordinances, and bowing down.
He does not want us to get our act together so that we might then go out and do mighty works for Him. We are not trying ingratiate Him. We are not trying to appease Him. We are not trying to impress Him. What He wants is for us to serve Him.
That means coming into His presence, bowing down, and saying, “Your servant, Lord.” This is the spirit of true worship. When Isaiah said, “Here am I, send me,” that was worship. When our bodies are living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, that is worship. And when we have worshipped, we have submitted to God. And when we have submitted to God, the devil will flee from us. We will notice new authority in resisting temptation. We will no longer feel as though all such struggles are nothing more than hopeless fights with diabolical tarbabies.
So, come, receive His food and drink. Submit to Him. He will receive you gladly.