You do not need to believe in the medieval images of the devil to encounter the evil that sometimes seems organized against us. A thought that keeps coming back to soil, a temptation that always appears at the worst moment, a whisper that says “you will not make it” — something is going on that exceeds us.
James proposes a two-step choreography: submit yourselves to God first, resist the devil after. The order matters. You do not fight alone, you fight leaning on Another. And the promise is clear: he will flee. Not just you will flee the temptation — he flees from you. He is the weak one when you stand with the One who is strong.
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
James 4:7