Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
I loved playing sports in high school and into college. The main sport that I played was soccer. There was a year in college that we actually, as a Christian college, went to the national tournament to play in the national championship games. It was such an honor, such a fun time for us.
Playing on Defense
We didn't end up winning the national tournament, but the very next year we came off of this great high thinking, okay, let's build on this. Well, we ended up scrimmaging a Division One university and it was brutal. What in the world?
That's a beautiful thing about college soccer—it's very controlled. It's great passing, trapping. But you reached a point in that game where you thought, we were only playing on defense. At some point it started reaching the point where we thought, just kick the ball as far as you possibly can. Just get it to the other side of the field, because we just want to play offense for a little bit, because the entire game, it felt like we were just playing defense.
It feels that way so many times. Often our days feel like we are just playing defense. We're just trying to survive. Even if it's beyond survival and we're at a decent place, many times we're just playing defense spiritually in our lives—just with different things going on.
The Context of the Verse
Our Verse of the Day today is James chapter 4, verse say. It says, "So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
I want to capture the context of this verse and share the verse before and after. Right before we dig in a little bit more, in verse 6 it says: "But He gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says, 'God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God, or humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God, and He will come near to you.'"
Understanding What's Behind Submission
The power of that is understanding what's behind it. When we submit and humble ourselves before God, really what that does is it places God's plans, His goals, His purpose, and His desires for us above our own.
It's one thing to say, I'm done with playing defense in my life. I'm done with just the constant struggle. I want to get on offense. To do that, what God is saying in this verse is, submitting yourselves to God, humbling yourselves before God, really is submitting to His plans. Humbling yourself and saying, Lord, Your plans, Your purpose, Your desires for me are more important than my own.
Spiritual Warfare
What does that do? It removes our own agenda and understanding that what we are doing every day is a spiritual battle. Ephesians chapter 6 says that we don't wrestle against—we don't fight against—physical warfare, but it's a spiritual warfare that we're in.
The Story of Elisha
A great illustration of this is in 2 Kings chapter 6. Elisha was doing things that were causing the Syrian king to be frustrated with what was going on. As a man of God, he was prophesying what the Syrian army was going to do. The Syrian army actually surrounded Elisha, this man of God, and his servant. We may think, wow, he's a huge threat. This whole entire army surrounded them.
Elisha went to his servant. His servant was very nervous and said, "Elisha, what are we going to do?" Elisha asked God to open his eyes, and his servant was able to see. Surrounding this physical army of Syria was God's army. That is the power of what we're talking about.
We Could Fight, But God Wants Surrender
Now Elisha and his servant could have grabbed their swords and run out. Isn't that what we typically do when we feel like we're surrounded, when we feel like we're just living on defense and we're just trying to survive? We start getting into just kick the ball as far as we can. Just grab the sword. Charge. Just go on survival mode and just try and defeat everything that's going on that's rising up against us.
God wants to actually say: “If you will only surrender and submit and humble yourself before Me”—that's the beauty of what this verse says— “the devil will flee.” Flee. This isn't just us playing on defense and the devil sticking around and constantly driving it at you and tempting you and causing you to stumble. It's he will flee, because now you're on offense.
Listen to God's Voice, Not Temptation's
This is the last thing I really want to capture with you. If you could just listen to this closely and apply it: if we continue to listen to the voices of temptation keeping us on defense, we will not hear God speak, calling us to something greater.
If we continue to listen to the voices of temptation keeping us on defense, we will miss out on what God has for us as He speaks His truth, His love, and as He speaks and calls us to something greater—something bigger, something higher—and yes, to be on offense.
Live on Offense
Jesus has already won the victory for you. May you live on offense today knowing you don't have to plan defense anymore and struggle with the same things. He has won the victory. May you live into that today and allow God to speak and hear His voice calling you to something greater today.
