February 2
“Submit therefore to God, Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” James 4:7-8
We are reviewing the twenty four steps to overcoming temptation outlined in the Overcoming Temptation booklet. As explained there, they are grouped into two groups of twelve each, with the first twelve being part of the REBUILD YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LORD, and the second twelve part of RESIST TEMPTATION WHEN IT COMES. These correspond to the verse above from James which suggests that there are two categories of activities we need to be doing, drawing near to God, purifying our hands, cleansing our hearts and minds, and the second being fleeing the devil, and the temptations, when they come.
In the coming days, we will discuss the necessity of submitting to God and drawing near to God and what are some things we can do to help make it a habit in our lives. Cleansing our hands, repenting, purifying our hearts, submitting to God, not being double-minded, all of these in my view are in the category of getting right with God or Rebuilding our Relationship with the Lord. We will spend at least one day on each of these ideas that are specifically mentioned in these verses, and then we will go through each of the twelve REBUILD principles individually.
Resisting the devil when he comes is clearly part of the second twelve RESIST principles, and we will revisit each of those individually also. My intent here would be to add perspectives and thoughts not already covered in the booklet.
I hope this will be an eternally rewarding review for all of us. May the Lord bless you as you seek to live a holy and pure life in full obedience to Him!