Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Pentecost 17 B - James 3:13-4:8

James 3:14-4:8
If “submit yourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you” was as easy as it sounds the devil would be forever on the run. But then it’s the first part “submit yourselves to God” that is the most difficult to do which is why we are always dealing with “the devil inside.” (INXS) We might be tempted to think that God holds back until we act since “draw near to God and God will draw near to you” seems to be all about us. But if submitting to God is predicated on the belief that God gifts us with wisdom from above then what we become in submitting to God is what God is – “pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy” and the devil cannot long endure such good gifts. So perhaps submitting to God is not about denying oneself but rather choosing to become the child of God we already are. (St. Augustine) 

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