Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

James 4:7

If we quit the path of the world and resist the devil, he will run away from us. We must resist, though, and that’s easier said than done. Resistance requires us to actively pull away. It demands we continually counter his lies by telling ourselves the truth about our God’s goodness, love, and power.

To this, I would also add that we shouldn’t converse with the Devil, don’t try to argue with him, do not give him attention. The Devil is more powerful than we are, but he is not more powerful than God. That is why we should turn to God for protection, but must not test the Devil just because we have God’s protection. To do so we would be taking advantage of God’s grace.

Take this for example, you have a herd of sheep, they are safe with you from wolves lurking in the forests, but for some reason, these sheep keep going into the forest instead of staying in open fields where there’s plenty of nice grass to eat and no wolf can sneak up unnoticed. Grass in the forest cannot be better than the one on the open fields, therefore sheep have no business going into the forest.

We are the sheep, and God is our shepherd. So let’s help God help us, and not go explore dangerous places.