So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)
Read: Ezekiel 40:28-41:26, James 4:1-17, Psalm 118:19-29, Proverbs 28:3-5
Relate: Eli Sunday is a great preacher, but not a good pastor. He can stir up the crowd. He is very charismatic. He is good with people, but he also is proud. His primary concern is for his own aggrandizement and to have a bigger and better church. Humility is something that does not appear on his radar.
Daniel Plainview is a cutthroat businessman. He is an oilman whose desire is to get richer. He will step on whoever he needs to in his climb up the ladder of success. Daniel wants some of Eli’s land. Eli wants to sell it to help finance his growing church. The problem is that these two men, both alpha dogs, have been squaring off for as long as anyone can remember. The town isn’t big enough for both their egos. Eli finally approaches Daniel with an offer to sell. Daniel agrees on one condition. He want’s to hear nine words first. Temptation is staring Eli straight in the face.
React: When faced with temptation, Eli failed. The fact is, he never had a chance. Ultimately he was forced to submit, because he was not submitted to God. Ultimately he was brought to his knees, because he was not living on them. The worst part about it, it was all for nothing. He sacrificed what little integrity he had left for an empty promise. He sold his soul only to find out it had already been stolen from him.
When we are not submitted to God, we find ourselves in the same boat. We might think we have integrity, or holiness, but we have neither. Both are gifts from God and if we are not submitted, humbled before Him, then all we have are empty promises. Legalism. We may think we are resisting the devil but he ain’t runnin. The devil is stronger than us and will always win in a one-on-one fight, but we have a big brother who has been lifting the weights of the world. We have a daddy who owns this town (and then some). We have a Spirit that cannot be quenched. The devil sees them in us and guess what… he’s gonna run.
Respond:
Dear God, keep me humble. Help me not to strive for myself but to always live for You. Help me to resist, but first help me to surrender.
THE RIVER WALK 
Awesome words. Thank you!
‘the devil will always win in a one-on-one fight’. True. Total submission is not an easy thing, but the moment we get a grasp of who we are submitting to and the need for such submission, we’ll do it in a heartbeat no matter what.
God loves us too much; simply he does. Thanks for this post.
Well said – AMEN!
Love that movie. So many great spiritual applications in it and you hit on a big one there. When pleasing ourselves is placed above pleasing God, we’re not pleasing to anyone.
Good stuff!
humbled
Amen brother
It hit home square….
BJ, I wish you, your family and all in your life a very Happy Thanksgiving. We all have so much to be thankful for. I am thankful to read God’s gift of your writing. It is a blessing. Thank you. God bless you!
Thank you. I know it is a day late but I hope you had a great Thanksgiving as well.
Wow…a great read..
That (video clip) will preach, as the cliche goes. Powerful. God help us.
I liked this post. I liked when you said, “When we are not submitted to God, we find ourselves in the same boat.”
Submission to God is probably one of the hardest things as Christians becuase we are still human and still want everything without the need for God.
I was listening to a podcast yesterday which said, “Humility prepares our lives for God to do something extraordinary.”
BJ. I’m glad I found you again. I did enjoy your style. This post caught my I because I just finished speaking about James chapter 1 in my blog. It talks about having joy and tribulation because they teach us so much. But we if we are not humbled before God more and more tests will come to bring us to that place. I would prefer to submit before God has to Humble me. He had to do that several times and it’s not pleasant.
Thank you for this post period is a great reminder of why we need to stay humble before almighty God.
Be blessed
Welcome back. It is good to see you again.