James 4:7-8 (ESV)
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
In the Greek language the words “submit yourselves” means to arrange in a military fashion under the command of a leader. When used outside of military purposes it was a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden. James says we should have a voluntary attitude of cooperating with God so that we might resist the temptations of the devil and instead draw near to God and away from Satan.
The New American Standard Translation of Isaiah 29:13-14 says, “Then the Lord said, "Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote, Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; And the wisdom of their wise men will perish, And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.” While the people of Israel thought they were drawing near to God with words and other actions their hearts were resisting God. They thought they understood God, but they were only following tradition and rote behavior. God let them know He was going to show them wonderful things if they would submit to Him. -- Two farmers prayed for rain, but only one plowed the fields. One farmer was resistant to his faith but the other farmer submitted his faith to God doing what he knew he should do even though he had to wait on the results. Are you doing what you should be doing and following through on your faith? Or are you just going through the motions with God?
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