Don't Skip the First Step!

Many quote the Bible verse James 4:7 Resist the devil and he will flee from you. However, that is step number two! The first part of that verse is step number one - Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Christ knows firsthand the power of temptation and He offered this to His disciples: Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak. (Mark 14:38).
It is not our strength and willpower that will lead us to victory over temptation; It is our submission to God and relying on His strength and not our own. The key is not trying, it is dying.

There are few stronger indications of ingnorance of the
power and evil of sin than the confident assertion of our ability to resist and
subdue it - Charles Hedge.

New Year's Resolutions
“McCall’s magazine of January 1995 ran a short article on New Year’s resolutions entitled ‘Ten Little Health Resolutions (With Big Payoffs)’: Now health and exercise are important and should be appreciated, but what was interesting was a look at the top four resolutions we make according to a Gallup poll: (1) improve personal finances, (2) stop smoking, (3) lose weight, and (4) get more exercise. If our resolutions reflect our concerns and where we want to improve ourselves to have a sense of contentment, these preferences do not reflect high goals. Except perhaps for personal finances, neither family nor God makes any appearance. We tend to define contentment in a privatized way about how our personal lives are going. Since we set goals that have nothing to do with relationships, many of us find ourselves lonely and discontent, for God created us to relate to Him and others. One of the effects of a culture that elevates individual rights and personal focus as ours is that we lose sight of how we gain contentment by interacting with God and others. Where are the goals that relate to pursuing God or knowing Him better? Why do resolutions for the most part deal with external matters? Is the soul so unimportant? If exercise is valuable for physical well-being, should we starve our inner being? If contentment is based upon externals that slowly wither away, will we not set ourselves up for disappointment if we focus on such goals?” (Darrell Bock)