Draw Near to God

James 4:8-10

8 Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.(KJV)

Today we are going to cover one of the most important admonitions God has given us through James. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Guess where James got that?

Look at the following verse:

Zech 1:3

3 Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.(KJV)

There are lots more verses that say in effect the same thing. Guess who has to make the first step. We do. The command is "draw near to me" and the result is "I will come near to you"

Someone will point out that it took God first reaching down to us to even get us saved. Yes, I have no argument with that. You see once we hear from God that He is calling us to Himself, it is up to us to respond to that. When we do, and then draw near to Him, He draws near to us.

And guess what folks, we need to do this on a daily basis at the very least. Some times when you are experiencing trials you need to do it far more than once a day, you may need to do it constantly, almost non-stop; and how much depends of the strength of the trial you are going through. Some folks find they must hang on and lean into him many times during an hour just to get through the trial. And why are you going through the trial-so that you can be strengthened, fortified, and victorious, and on top of that educated in God’s ways, and on top of that be able to show God’s glory and power to others.

Now another reason James said for us to draw near to God or God through James said it is the statement Jesus made in

John 15:4

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.(KJV)

In order to abide, you have to draw near to God and as you spend time with God you are abiding with Him and obeying Him also, and then you find fruit being born. There is a result-fruit. For as you abide with Him, He draws near to you and more than that you are in Him and He is in you. So what James is stressing in his letter in chpt 4:8 is the necessity of our time with and relationship with God. In that same verse he says, "Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded." In the next verse he says, "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness."

What is he talking about in those two verses? He is talking about repentance. In God’s presence, in abiding with Him, you have to cleanse your behavior. You have to purify your hearts. You can’t go into His presence really without that. He states, be afflicted, mourn, weep, grieve over your sins, forsake all your sins, get cleansed by God’s forgiveness and start walking in the light as you were supposed to be doing. Get your heart right with God. You can’t bear fruit until you start abiding with God in His presence and believe me, His presence will highlight the sins in your life that you have to get rid of by forsaking, by confession to Him, by asking His forgiveness and then accepting His word that says, when you ask His forgiveness, you receive it and are cleansed. For as John stated in his epistle, his letter

I Jn 1:9

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.(KJV)

This is what James is getting at, what James is trying to say to us all, and especially those he was writing to back then. You see, those folks he was writing to in that 1st cenury had the same flaws we have today. Why? Because they too were humans with human foibles, human frailties, flaws, etc.

As you follow James’admonitions from God, humbling yourself before Him, He will lift up your spirit, your soul, even your body, for your body will respond to the condition of your soul and spirit.

Is God telling you that you need to spend much more time with Him each day? Or are you an anorexic Christian? Are you starving yourself when it comes to reading the Word of God, or are you spending time each day in His Word, in His presence, being cleansed and purified by your relationship with Him. If you are a believer, He has already made you a new creature. Live that way instead of letting the world mold you, or letting your past trip you up by doing the same old sins you used to. Let God sand you, polish you, chisel you, so that you shine like Him. Let Him deal with that part of you that tends to resist Him. You don’t become instantly perfect when you get saved, but you get cleansed and have to stay clean. Remember Jesus cleaned the feet of the disciples and told Peter,

John 13:10

10 Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all {of you.} (NAS)

We have been bathed but still have to wash our feet as they get dusty and dirty from this world. This is your visual analogy for needing to continue to cleanse our hearts before Him. We have been cleaned up except our feet still keep getting dirty. Our feet symbolizing our soul. The dirt symbolizing the sin in our lives. John made it clear in is 1st epistle, his first letter,

I Jn 1:8

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.(KJV)

John is talking to Christians in this letter. So you see, there are things in our lives that God pinpoints through out our lives so that we can shine more and more. And that shine that comes out is the reflection of Jesus Himself. He fills us as we empty ourselves of us. It is a process, and it is a life time process. You would be surprised at the things in your life that God wants removed. Most of those things are attitudes about issues in you life–things you would not think are important, but God keeps pinpointing to you that you need to change here or there. You need to give up this or that attitude, thought, behavior and replace it with the right ones. And scripture tells us what is right thinking, believing and doing. There is a lot in us, a lot of self in us that needs to come totally under the obedience of Christ. It starts in our beliefs and thought life and extends into our actions.

Get with God today. Draw near to Him so that the door is open for Him to draw near to you. That picture of Rev 3:20 represents God knocking and waiting for you to open the door, drawing near to Him. When you open the door, you are drawing near to Him and He can draw near to you. But the door knob is on your side of that door.

Your relationship with God is the most important relationship you can have in this life. Don’t neglect it. May God bless you as you seek Him and draw near to Him. He is everything you want. The Good News Lady