Daily Surrender
What does it mean to be humble in our relationship with God?
There are three things that the apostle James mentions that can help us: submit to God, resist the devil, and draw near to God.
Submit to God.
Submitting to God means coming under His authority. Rather than living according to our own desires and ways of living, we should submit those things to God and live according to His desires and standards.
In order to truly submit to God, we must first recognize that His ways are better than ours. We must recognize that He knows better than we do. We must also believe that He has our best intentions in mind. He cares for us.
Resist the devil.
The devil desires to keep us from our relationship with God and cause us to stray from God. When we resist him by God’s strength, he will flee from us.
Draw near to God.
The best way to submit to God and resist the devil is to draw close to God in our relationship with Him. Not only does He promise to draw close to us, but He will also give us strength and grace to endure every trial.
Take a moment to think about your own life. Are there parts of your life or plans that you haven’t surrendered to God? Every day is a new opportunity to submit ourselves to God and to draw near to Him. So right now, think of ways you can make these things part of your daily habits.
Created to Love Others
When we believe in Jesus and live our lives following after Him, we get to experience His grace and mercy every day! We get to walk in new life and new ways of thinking about God's creation and our place in it. Not to mention, we can rest knowing we are God's own children!
But it can be just as easy to live life thinking only of ourselves and the good things we have received. Jesus spent most of His ministry helping and assisting others, but if we're being honest—and Jesus was always honest, too—most of us have a tendency to be selfish with God's gifts, or ignore opportunities to serve the weak or needy in our everyday lives.
As Paul was speaking to the leaders at the church in Ephesus in Acts 20:35, he made sure to remind them that his life has not been about himself, but about helping others. Paul says that everything he has done has been about helping those who are weak and in need. Paul didn't say these things to boast about himself, he said them to point back to ...