October 22, 2025 | Be God's Family
Submit to God & Resist the Devil
Scripture: James 4:7-10(NIV)
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Devotional
What stands out to you in the scripture? It begins in a place we all understand: Submit to God, resist the devil. Draw near to God, cleanse your hands, purify your hearts. All of these we are familiar with. Here is our faith! God, cleanliness, purity! Whew, I'm good!
Wait–James goes on–lament, mourn, and weep. What? Isn't my faith supposed to bring me unending joy and peace? Why would I stop laughing? Why would I want to be dejected? Isn't faith about feeling good? About me? About God?
James is not talking about how faith will make us feel; he is talking about how we should feel when we look around: when we see those less fortunate than ourselves, when we see others who have no God, when we see selfishness in ourselves and others. We should mourn for others and our part in their place, weep when we see their needs, and lament for the world and our part in it.
In doing so, we will bring ourselves humbly before God and ask for forgiveness from a place of humility, understanding that only through God can we change the world. When we have mourned, wept, and lamented, when we have stopped laughing at others and see their pain, when we are dejected over the world's circumstances—THEN we will turn to God, THEN we will open our hearts, THERE we will find the joy!
In our humble obedience to God, in relinquishing our need to be in control, in opening our hearts to His love, we will find the joy in the giving of ourselves! We circle round to the beginning of the passage: Submit to God and you can resist the Devil. It is well said in Ephesians 6:13-17:
13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Poem
The Crush
Proverbs 2
Good friend, take to heart what I’m telling you; collect my counsels and guard them with your life. Tune your ears to the world of Wisdom; set your heart on a life of Understanding. That’s right—if you make Insight your priority, and won’t take no for an answer,
Searching for it like a prospector panning for gold, like an adventurer on a treasure hunt, Believe me, before you know it Fear-of-God will be yours; you’ll have come upon the Knowledge of God.
Proverbs 2:1-5
Eighth grade, I had a longing crush
A boy with form most handsome
I’d stand by lockers, waiting thus
For him to pass me by
I longed for him to walk by close
His presence was my goal
O, what I’d do, if he just spoke
And looked me in the eye
O, that I had a crush on God
His presence my desire
O, that I’d wait on paths He trod
O, that He would draw close
With baited breath, Lord, let me seek
A moment spent with You
To humbly sit down at Your feet
May I desire the most
