Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.  (James 4:7-8a NIV)

On the weekends, we like to take Iva, my black Lab guide dog, somewhere different than our usual neighborhood walks. As I sat in the car, I realized our times in this area will soon come to an end. It’s late March and snakes will soon be on the loose. Timmy and Iva came back to the car quicker than usual. A long snake had disrupted their plans. I’m thankful I remained in the car. With my sciatic pain, I could not have run with them to escape the slithering reptile.

What interrupted your prayers this morning? A knock on the door, a ding from your phone, or something urgent flashed across your mind? We all fight enemies that don’t like prayer.

Our flesh needs to move out of the way, so we can pray in the Spirit. Flesh never wants to pray, and the war between the flesh and the Spirit is greatest when we sit down, bow our heads, and close our eyes.

The devil is the other enemy that sets out to disrupt our prayers. We can’t be sure which of these two enemies create the interruption, but one is guilty.

According to James, we don’t run from the devil. He runs from us, because we resist him. First, we begin with a submissive life. God is Lord of our lives, and that means we must relinquish our control to Him. For me, that last bit of control becomes hard to release. I like my plans, but I’ve found God has better ones. As you can tell, this goes beyond living a holy and obedient life. We must submit every inch of our lives.

During that process, the devil will slither up and attempt to tempt us, but we must take a stand in our submission. When he realizes we aren’t moving, he will flee.

Then we go one step further, we draw near to God. That’s a deeper submission. It’s a Spirit-led desire to spend time with our heavenly Father. It’s time to abide, and He will draw near to us.

The closer we are to God, the less influence the enemy has on us.

Prayer is a battle, because that is the one thing the enemy doesn’t want us to do. When we pray, we are strengthened, and the devil knows it’s too powerful for him. Prayer changes things. It breaks the enemy’s hold. It messes up his plans.

Prior to prayer, take a moment to get in a mode of submission, and draw near to God. You might have to resist that old serpent each time, but continue to resist. Jesus has already won this battle.

Originally posted on March 31, 2023 @ 10:00 am