submit to God
1 Peter 5:6-5:11
these verses are essential to spiritual warfare.
Also relevant: Proverbs 3:34.
i love the way The Bible explains itself. The best explanation of one verse is another.
James 4:7-4:10 shows us more on the subject of spiritual warfare... shows us something i did not notice for years:
"....resist the devil and the devil will flee..." i knew that quote in theory, but there was a huge "theory-practice gap", which means i often failed to apply it. Should have asked the question: "how do you resist?" When i looked the James 4:7-4:10 quote up to read the other verses around it, the answer made itself clear: the way to resist is by submitting to God.
Not by "knowing oneself better" (boring! or confusing, in Jeremiah 17:3-17:9, we find that the heart is self-deceiving), nor by "studying strategy & military history"/"emulating famous generals" (a bit irrelevant), nor by "knowing the enemy better" (the devil? what good would that do? that schmuck is "in our faces" to the point that we know too much of that vile thing already). We win the spiritual battles in our lives by submitting to God.
And as someone else pointed out (note: "DIY" by JGlover86, posted 20121105), we do not have to do much to ourselves. As someone else said: "Less Me, More Christ in Me" (note by AndrewGrexa, posted 20121105) . If we focus on God, if we get to know him better, he changes us. It is God who does most of the work to change us. When we focus on the many aspects of His holiness & His greatness, it is difficult to react in any way other than becoming more humble.
What God has done has won the victory for us already. The victory is His.
Created 7 months ago
