Submit...

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)

                Uh oh, there’s that terrible word… submit.  Another translation says, “Humble yourselves.” Another nasty word. Why should I grovel in the dirt? I have value! Why should I throw myself on the ground like a welcome mat and let everyone walk all over me? It’s wrong to allow anyone to treat me as if you don’t matter! In fact, a friend shared something yesterday saying that it’s OK to walk away from a relationship in which one doesn’t feel valued. I’ve been in a number of those relationships, and I suspect in most of them, the other person would say that I was the guilty one, that I didn’t value them highly enough. If I weren’t so arrogant…. I suspect that most of us have been on both sides of that equation. 
               But look at the whole verse. First, we’re to submit ourselves to God. He gets to call the shots. He gets to make the rules. He’s the god in the relationship. We’re the creatures, the created beings. This is why we need to humble ourselves to Him. 
                Take it that one step farther. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Could this be what the verse is really talking about? We submit ourselves to God as a means of resisting the devil. Think about the serpent in the Garden of Eden. He tempted Eve with the notion of being “like God.” He tempted her to be proud, to not submit to God.
                If we respond to Satan by being proud of the fact that he left when we told him to, he has won. God tells us that victory over Satan isn’t won by beating Satan. It’s won by surrendering to God.