Winning the good fight!

The real battle of your life is with your own selfish desires and sinful pride. In James 4:6 he quotes the Scriptures (Proverbs 3:34) when he says  "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Pride and selfishness go hand in hand. Where you find pride you will also find selfishness  - and Christians losing the battles against unhappiness, sadness, depression and burnout!

Our real need is for humility. James 4:10 tells us: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.  We can choose to go on in selfish pride or we can choose to humble ourselves. The way of humility leads to be lifted up from our dark places to enjoy the light of God’s joy and redemption!

So, how can we express this humility? How can we fight the real fight against our own selfish desires and sinful pride? James gives us four things we must do.

1.  We must accept God’s will. In verse 7 James tells us: Submit yourselves, then, to God. When we submit to God we are acknowledging that his way is right. But submitting to God is more than that. It is giving him control of your life. To do that you must yield to him. Quit trying to run your own life. Put God in charge of your life by obeying him.

One of the reasons why we have so much conflict is because we have not settled our own relationship with God. We have not really decided to submit to him in practical ways. Make no mistake about this — you can’t follow Jesus without obeying him! Jesus is not the Lord of your life if you do not do what he says.   There is no real peace if you do not submit to God. The Spirit of God will bring conviction to your heart and you will never enjoy the peace of God until you surrender to him. So accept God’s will. Submit to God.

2.  We must reject God’s enemy. James not only tells us to submit to God but he also tells us: Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. How do you do this? How do you resist the devil?

You do it by resisting his philosophy of life. You do it by resisting what he wants you to do. You do it by resisting living by his standards. Be smart. Be on your guard. The devil is trying to trip you up. He is trying to destroy you. He is not trying to help you. He wants to hurt you.  Remember Joseph!

Evil shows up when you are tempted to substitute other things for God. He shows up when you are tempted to stay home from church. He shows up when you are tempted not to come to the prayer gathering. He shows up when you are tempted not to read your Bible. He shows up when you are tempted not to tithe. He shows up when you are tempted to substitute activities for worship, television for prayer, giving to yourself for giving to God — doing something good for doing what is the best. When he shows up like this — resist him! Don’t give in. If you won’t give in, he will flee from you.

3.  You must also pursue God’s presence. In verse 8 James says, Come near to God and he will come near to you. In other words, you must be proactive. It is not enough to accept God’s will and reject God’s enemy. You must actively pursue a living relationship with the living Lord.

Have you become too busy to work on your relationship with God? No one can do anything about it except you. What you spend your time doing is what you are investing your life in. We need to invest in eternity because that’s where we are going to spend a very long time.

4.  There is still one other issue James addresses in this passage of Scripture. We must accept God’s will, reject God’s enemy, pursue God’s presence, and then we must receive God’s forgiveness.

Look at verses 8-10: Wash your hands and purify your heart, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. Here James gives us the key to receiving God’s forgiveness.

This is where humility comes in. It is humbling to ask God for forgiveness. It is humbling to ask anyone for forgiveness.

But we need to do it. We need to do it because it is the right thing to do and we need to do it because we need forgiveness. Just think of how much conflict, sadness and dark places could be avoided if we were to say, "I was wrong, please forgive me."

And then God lifts us up!  He brings us into the light of his peace and joy!