So it’s taking me a little longer than anticipated to blog through my James bible study. Two more amazing chapters to reflect on. Have I mentioned that I love this book?!? Chapter 4 of this book has some of my favorite verses in the bible. You know what I think the most important thing to realize when reading the bible?!? To believe that it’s true. That sounds obvious, right? But I think we often read this book as if it is full of nice stories and nice ideals to aspire to. But there is no power in that. God gave us this book to take hold of these truths and then see the tangible fruit of these truths in our daily lives. Read this book as if God is speaking directly to you and that His promises are true, because they are!
James 4: 5 “…do you think it’s without reason the Scripture says that the Spirit He has caused to live in us yearns jealously?”
The bible describes God as jealous for us on more than one occasion. It took me awhile to understand what this jealousy really means. In the English language, the word jealously doesn’t conjure very positive feelings or images. But this notion of God being jealous for us is really quite beautiful. God recently gave me a revelation about how He is jealous for me. When I was working full time and my kids were in daycare, I was jealous for them! Even though I enjoyed my job and knew that they were having a very positive daycare experience, I was still jealous for their time. I wanted to spend my days with them. I wanted to be the one teaching them the alphabet, comforting them when they were hurt/sad/tired, feeding them nutritious foods, being there for their “firsts,” etc. I feel this is how God is jealous for my own life. When I get too distracted and lose touch with His heart, he gets jealous. He wants to be the one encouraging me, teaching me, comforting me, correcting me, loving me unconditionally, etc. Isn’t that amazing?!? The creator of the universe yearns so desperately to be with me.
James 4: 7 “…But resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. ”
As I mentioned up above to view the bible as completely true, so must we view the devil and his works as very real. Now that doesn’t mean he has power over our lives (unless we let him), but we do have to realize that there is an actual enemy that wants to rob us of everything good in our lives. I love this verse above because it makes it so simple. Resist the devil and his works and he has to flee from you. He has no power to destroy your life. God has already dealt with him by the work of Jesus on the cross. Resisting the devil can take on many forms, but the bottom line is it is an active choice on our part to resist him. This could mean resisting media that grieves God’s spirit and gives ground to the devil. Maybe it’s resisting words that we’re filling our mind with (negative self talk, foul language, etc). Maybe it’s making the choice to not give into fear in a certain area of our lives. My intent is not to write on every possible way of resisting the devil, but the point is to make the choice to resist him. Don’t give him ground in your life. And then believe that he will flee from you. The verse doesn’t say he might flee from you, but that he will. A lot of times just speaking the word “leave” is all that is needed.
