Drawing Near to God - Part 2: Resist the Devil
 

Drawing Near to God
Part 2: Resist the Devil

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
Print, Study and Apply


Title: Resist the Devil--------------------- Date: 10/12/1999
Keywords: "
devil" "power" "resist"


Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation.

This is part two in a five part study on drawing near to God. James gives us insight on practical ways we can move closer to God, the source of our strength.

Passage: James 4:7-10*

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.

Questions

1. Looking today at the last part of verse 7, how can you resist the devil?

 

2. What happens when you do resist the devil?

 

Practical help

God, by his grace through Jesus Christ has brought you back into his presence. If you're not sure you're in God's presence, click here to find out how you can be.

Yet even while you're in his presence you can choose how close you want to be to him. If your choices lately have been putting a lot of distance between you and God then take a note from James -- God wants you to be near and here's one way:

Resist the devil.

Yeah, sure! How are you supposed to do that? If he's real, doesn't he have supernatural powers? How does a human deal with that kind of power?

Easy! You just have to tap into something more powerful.

If you're in God's presence (have trusted Jesus as your savior) then you're connected to the only one who's defeated the devil.

Even though the devil has been allowed some time to play with your mind (like telling you pornography won't do you any harm) he can't beat you -- he can only try.

The good news for you is that you can resist the devil by trusting in Jesus' victory. When you do that, the devil (and his temptations) will flee from you to someone who's a little easier to mess with.


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Copyright 1999 by eXXit
*Scriptures are from The Holy Bible: New International Version © Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.