Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. James 4:7-10
I have a hard time “giving up” things, especially food. I love to eat. I know that if I eat all that I want, my health will deteriorate. So instead of giving up food, I add exercise, hoping to subtract what an overabundance of food may add. This is a very strenuous and not always successful plan, a constant battle that I try to control.
I tried to find a good passage describing Lent for this devotional. One of the better ones I found follows:
Lent is a way to place ourselves before God humbled, bringing into our hands no price whereby we can ourselves purchase our salvation. It is a way to confess our total inadequacy before God, to strip ourselves bare of all pretenses to righteousness, to come before God in dust and ashes. It is a way to empty ourselves of our false pride, of our rationalizations that prevent us from seeing ourselves as needy creatures, of our perfectionist tendencies that blind us to the plank in our own eyes.
This description led me to seek passages in the Bible about submission and I was directed to the 4th chapter of the book of James, verses 7-10. In this passage, James calls for Christians to submit ourselves to God, wash our hands of sin, grieve, mourn and wail, come near to God so he will come close to us. In other words, receive God’s addition by subtraction.
Thank you God, for your love, your grace, your forgiveness and your ever-loving kindness. Thank you for the confidence to know that when we subtract ourselves and submit ourselves to you, you will add your presence to our lives. Amen.
