"SHARING HOPE THROUGH SCRIPTURE ABOUT DRAWING NEAR TO GOD"

"SHARING HOPE THROUGH SCRIPTURE ABOUT DRAWING NEAR TO GOD"

James 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

James 4:9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Some explanatory thoughts/application, and a prayer:

1. James tells us in no uncertain terms that we can draw near to God. In fact, he tells us to do that, "Draw near to God" And, then there is this promise that God will draw near to you. Or "Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you" So, it can happen. We are to come near to God, and he will come near to us.

2. The next very clear statement is a two-fold action on our part. And, it deals with our hands, and our hearts.

(1) We are to cleanse our hands. Or we are to wash our hands, to make them clean, to purge and to purify our hands. Which means in a moral sense to free ourselves from defilement, and to purify ourselves from wickedness, to dedicate ourselves not to sin, but to God. God has provided a way for this to happen. 1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

(2) We are also to purify our hearts you double minded. To purify our hearts, is to make ourselves morally clean. This gets right down to the heart of where we live, our very core. We can become morally unclean through sin. In our spirit's or in our minds that is. So, James is saying in this entire verse to clean up our actions, and to clean up our thoughts, or our inner life. They are both part of who we are, and they both need to be dealt with if we are to draw near to God.

He also uses the term double-minded. This term means wavering, or to have divided interest. To be uncertain, and doubting. So, he is saying to be undivided and focused in your walk with the Lord. To put Your faith in Jesus Christ, and leave it there, and not waver back and forth, but be steady and focused.

3. Finally, James says that if we do what we ought to do, then we can be sure that God will draw near to us. God will draw close to you. God wants to have this relationship, but sin will put distance between us and God, and once sin is dealt with in our lives, then it opens the way for a closer relationship with God, and that of course is what God wants for each of His children.

4. There are two other verses in this section. Let me just list them, and may they just encourage you as they are very self-explanatory, and very encouraging.

James 4:9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Essentially these verses are calling for repentance and for humility. And we are promised that if we humble ourselves, and if we repent and get our lives right with God, that God will lift us up, or draw near to us, and we to Him.

A prayer:

Father, thank You for encouraging us. You are the great encourager of Your children. You love us more than we can know this side of heaven. You do not condemn us, but rather, You want us to be free from sin, and to be free from pride, and to walk as closely with You this side of heaven as we can. Someday, we will not need this instruction, for we will be with You in heaven, and there will no longer be any sin or evil, and we will forever be close to You. But, down here, we need to constantly re-align ourselves, and You have encouraged us to do so, and You have promised to bless us with intimacy with You.

Pastor Bob Grenier
Calvary Chapel Visalia.