Complete Submission

“Complete Submission”

By Zach Wood

James 4:7 NIV

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

This time of year, many people have made resolutions of things they want to change in their lives.  They may list many different things they would like to change or be better at in life.  So many people make these decisions and try to follow through on them.

As the New Year approached, there was really one though on my mind and heart.  I was thinking about how I can get closer to God and what I need to flee in my life in order to accomplish this.  I’m not a person who makes long lists for resolutions.  I’m not into making a huge list of things I want to change.  What I do like to do is think of one or two things that I really want to see change in my life and pray about God helping me to do this.

What if we all made it our prayer this year to work on complete and full submission to God each and every day?  What does that look like?  What does it mean for each of us to fully surrender our lives each day?  James tells us to submit our lives entirely to God and by doing that we resist the devil and he flees from us. 

I really want to make it a point in my every day walk this year to strive better in making God my priority.  I want to grow closer to Him so that I can resist what Satan throws at me each day, throughout the day.  It is downright hard some days to keep my focus on Jesus because I have so many selfish thoughts and other thoughts that keep me from thinking of Him.  I have to be very intentional many times through my day to focus on Christ and not let my mind wander.

So what does it look like for you to completely submit as you continue in this New Year?  What does it look like in your life to be completely devoted to Him?  Let this be a main question that dictates how you life your every day life.  What decisions are you making that glorify Him or are you turning from Him in what you decide?  What words are you saying and what ways are you living that either glorify Him or turn away from Him?

I want to resist the devil every day.  I want to turn away from him when he throws impure thoughts at me and tempts me to be unfaithful in so many ways.  I want to be strong in the Lord and stand up to the enemy and resist his flaming arrows.  I want to be in complete and full submission to Him.  But you know what?  It’s going to take a lot of work and daily commitment.  It’s going to be hard and will require much effort. 

I hope that we each will make this our prayer to be in complete and full submission to Him every moment of every day.