Submission to God

All scripture references, unless otherwise noted, are from the King James Version of the Holy Bible. 
The Bible says in James 4:7, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Have you ever wondered why the devil keeps bothering you when you resist him. You love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and you love your neighbor as yourself. (see Matthew 22:37-40: Mark 12:29-31; and Luke 10:27) You thought by having a heart full of love you were submitting to God. After all it was the Lord Jesus who said in Matthew 22:40, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." You have done these two to the best of your ability with the help of the Lord Jesus and still the devil bothers you and in some cases binds you up.

But let me say to you that the problem may be you are not truly submitting to God. The Bible says in Hebrews 13:17, "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you." I am now 77 years old and pastored several churches over the years. Since retiring from pastoring I have faced the same dilemma.  I told my current pastor that I don't need to pastor anymore I just need a pastor. Its hard to spend years pastoring people expecting them to submit themselves to me and all of a sudden find myself in need of a pastor and the need to submit myself to him.

Friend, if you and I won't submit ourselves to them that have the rule over us don't think it strange that we are not truly submitted to God. We have  a need to submit ourselves to one another and the the pastor who is over us if we expect to be submitted to God. When we will submit ourselves to the authority of whomever God has put us under only then will we be able to be truly submissive to the Lord Jesus and only then will the devil have to flee from us. Nuff said!