Resist the Devil

But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse [your] hands, [ye] sinners; and purify [your] hearts, [ye] double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and [your] joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. -- James 4:6-10 --

Every time we feel the Spirit drawing us to action and we deny it because we are afraid people will think that we are crazy, we are giving in to pride. I'm talking about when we see something in scripture that we feel applies to us as to action, but we are afraid to do it. The anointing of oil. Forgiving one another. Confessing our sins one to another. Requesting prayer. Covering the head. Removing objects that remind of us sin from our homes. If the ONLY reason that we hesitate to obey this calling is because we are afraid of what others would think, we are become slaves to our own pride, to the approval of men rather than of God.

Those of us with OCD especially know what it is like to be of two minds. We have the OCD mind, which insists that something is one way, and our rational mind, which insists that this cannot possibly be the case. We can find help here in this passage. We humble ourselves in the sight of God by ignoring our pride. We submit ourselves to God and resist the devil. It says that the devil will flee from us if we resist him. Again, we resist him by exerting the power of truth as is seen in Ephesians chapter 6.

I have found scripture meditation to be a very invaluable tool in resisting the devil in this manner. By filling our whole mind with scripture, any scripture at all, we are doing several things. We are crowding out any space in the mind wherein the devil could find a foothold; we are filling our whole mind with truth. We are resisting the devil by refusing to think about what he wants us to obsess over. We're not trying to fight him off, attack him, or even rationalize around him. We are simply resisting him by refusing to listen.

In scripture meditation, we are actively drawing near to God through his Word. We have the promise of scripture that if we draw near to God that He will draw near to us. Rest in the comfort that even if we cannot feel his presence, He will still draw near to us if we draw near to Him. The best method that I have found for my own personal use is to write the scripture down where you can see it, preferably on index cards or something similar, and read it over and over, committing it to memory. After the passage has been memorized, you will be able to not only recite it from memory, but will be able to visualize the card in your mind, scanning it with your mind's eye, highlighting each word in turn. In this way, I am able to fill my mind with both the image and words of the verse, and by saying it aloud, I am filling my ears with the sound of it. By filling all of my senses with the scripture, I am edging out any place where the devil can attack. Eventually, the attack will end. You have resisted the devil, and he has fled from you. As you practice over time refuting the devil's lies, either through direct scriptural confrontation against lies or by simply refusing to listen, he will turn his attack elsewhere.