JAMES SERIES (11)

James 4:7–10 CSB

7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

There’s a war raging—not out there in the world, but right here, within us. It’s a battle between pride and humility, between self-will and surrender, between the kingdom of self and the Kingdom of God. And James, the brother of Jesus, doesn’t pull any punches. He calls us to the front lines with a clear command: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

This is not a passive faith. This is a call to arms—not with swords or slogans, but with submission, repentance, and humility. In a world that celebrates self-promotion, James calls us to bow low so that Christ might lift us up. In a culture that says “judge and be judged,” James says, “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge.”

As Christians, we believe in entire sanctification—that God not only forgives sin but cleanses the heart from its root. And this passage is a roadmap to that holy life. It begins with surrender. It deepens through resistance. And it culminates in a heart so humbled that God Himself draws near.

So today, I ask you: Are you ready to lay down your pride? Are you ready to stop playing God and start trusting Him? Because the path to holiness begins not with striving, but with submitting.

Let’s walk that path together.

🛠️ Illustration: The Blacksmith’s Anvil

There’s an old story about a blacksmith who had a sign hanging above his shop that read: “We shape our tools on the anvil of submission.”

One day, a young apprentice asked, “Why do you keep hammering the same piece of metal over and over?”

The blacksmith replied, “Because the metal has a memory. It wants to go back to its old shape. If I don’t keep the heat and pressure on it, it’ll never become what it was meant to be.”

Church, isn’t that us? We come to the altar, we surrender, we say, “Lord, have Your way.” But then Monday comes, and we start bending back to our old shape—our pride, our judgments, our self-will.

James is calling us to stay on the anvil. To let the Holy Spirit keep shaping us until our hearts reflect the humility and holiness of Christ.

So how do we stay moldable? How do we resist the pull of the old self and remain in the hands of the Divine Blacksmith?

James gives us a blueprint. In verses 7 through 10, he lays out a rhythm of submission, resistance, repentance, and humility. This is not just a list of commands—it’s a portrait of a sanctified life. A life that says, “Not my will, but Yours be done.”

Let’s walk through these verses together and discover what it truly means to live a life fully surrendered to God.

4:7–10 What does it look like to daily humble yourself before the Lord? First, you must submit to God and draw near to him (4:7–8). To submit to God is to recognize your weakness, to stop fighting, and to surrender to him as your ultimate and final authority

 (see Rom 12:1–2 12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.  

Romans 12:1–2 CSB

1 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

If you had the power to live a transformed life on your own, you wouldn’t need “greater grace” (4:6). To draw near to God is to come into his presence with prayer, praise, and obedience. However, if you reserve this for Sundays only, you won’t draw near enough. Therefore submit to God: In light of the grace offered to the humble, there is only one thing to do: submit to God. This means to order yourself under God, to surrender to Him as a conquering King, and start receiving the benefits of His reign.

We should submit to God because He created us.

· We should submit to God because His rule is good for us.

· We should submit to God because all resistance to Him is pointless.

· We should submit to God because such submission is absolutely necessary to salvation.

· We should submit to God because it is the only way to have peace with God.

‘Submit yourselves unto God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.’ If you do not submit to God you never will resist the devil, and you will remain constantly under his tyrannical power. Which shall be your master, God or devil, for one of these must? No man is without a master.”

Second, you must resist the devil (4:7). Submitting to God is one side of the coin; resisting the devil is the other. In the spiritual war, we must surrender to the true King and join in opposition to the wicked usurper. Don’t underestimate Satan. He’s stronger than you, smarter than you, and has been practicing his craft for millennia. There’s only one way to resist him: the same way the King of kings resisted him—by wielding Scripture (see Matt 4:1–11). When the devil whispers his lies to your conscience, proclaim the truth of the Word of God, and he will flee from you  as he fled from Christ

Matt 4:11 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and began to serve him. [1]

Matthew 4:11 CSB

11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and began to serve him.

 But you can’t proclaim what you don’t know.

“Church, James doesn’t leave us with mere advice—he lays down the path to revival. Submit to God. Resist the devil. Draw near to the Father. Cleanse your hands. Purify your hearts. These aren’t casual invitations—they're holy demands for a consecrated life.

Today, I’m not calling you to improvement. I’m calling you to entire sanctification. A life where no part of you resists God’s rule. A heart that no longer flirts with the world. Holiness isn’t achieved by striving—it’s received by surrender.

So kneel low. Mourn your compromise. Weep over divided loyalties. Then rise—lifted by grace, clothed in humility, filled with holy fire.

Let the altar be a threshing floor. Let repentance be real. And let the lifting come, not by applause, but by the hand of the Almighty. For when we humble ourselves… He will lift us up.”