JAMES
Chapter 4
DRAW
CLOSE TO GOD
Has every
effort you made to draw close to God sometimes made you feel even further away
from Him? Have you ever been confronted with this question or asked yourself,
how do I draw close to God? Why is it necessary for us to draw close to God and
how do we even do it when we were born into this world as sinners and are
living in a sinful world?
In this
chapter of James, he writes to the Jewish Christians who were scattered over
the whole world (James 1:1) and reveal the reason for this waywardness, but he
also exhorts and gives us practical ways on how we can draw close to God. Let’s
explore this a bit further.
1. Why do we sometimes (or often times)
feel that we cannot draw close to God?
The core
problem we have as humans as explained in James 4: 1-4 is the condition of our
heart and our desires. It is this condition of man’s heart that leads to
quarrels and dispute and war and separation from God (distance if you will).
In our
core, the sinful nature we were born into, desires these things. When the
prophet Jeremiah interceded for the tribe of Judah, he laments in Jer 17:9
"Who can understand the human heart? There is nothing else so deceitful;
it is too sick to be healed. Jer 17:10 I, the LORD, search the minds and test
the hearts of people. I treat each of them according to the way they live,
according to what they do." (GNT)
James
addressed this issue about worldly desires to Jesus’s followers, which means
that even followers of Christ struggle with this war of good versus evil within
us, the longing for worldly things vs the things of the Kingdom of Christ.
2. God’s answer to cure the state of
our deceitful hearts?
If the preceding
paragraph is a discomfort to you, it is a good thing, because it means that you
do not want to be far from God. So do not despair, as children living under the
new Covenant, we can be assured that our LORD God Almighty made a way for us to
overcome. How did He do this?
In James 4:5-6 he points to the fact
that when we are born again, (v5) God has placed the Holy Spirit within us, who
longs for us to be faithful and (v6) helps us by giving us more and more
strength to stand against such evil desires. The Holy Spirit is a wonderful,
precious gift the Lord has given us, to be cherished and to give the space in
our heart He deserves.
BUT we have to die to our fleshly
nature and desires and humble ourselves as “He has no use for conceited people, but
shows favour to those who are humble. (GNT)” (James 4:6b and Prov 3:34)
3. Doing my part - How I can draw close
to God?
James
4:7-10 gives us four tools we can use to draw near to God:
· V7a – Humble (submit) yourself
before God. In other words do not be boastful and lean on your own ability and
understanding and think that you can accomplish things in your own strength.
· V7b – Resist the devil and he
will flee from you. If you have a struggle with something do not go to that
place of temptation, avoid it as far as possible. Find scripture that you can
use as a weapon to help you resist.
· V8 – Draw close to God, wash your
hands and purify your hearts. Choose to live a life of purity, with your
thoughts, your body and your actions. If you stray (all of us do), be quick to
repent and return to Jesus who paid the price so that you can draw close to God.
· V9 – Let there be deep sorrow and
grief for you sin (not merely the consequences thereof). Do not feel
shameful because you stumbled, all of us do in our walk with the Lord and is in
need of Jesus our Saviour.
In v10 James reminds us of the promise that when we humble ourselves
before the Lord, he will lift us up. The humbling process might be painful, but
it is so worth it to experience that closeness and intimacy with God when we
do.
Let us reflect
· When we pray to God is our prayers
to satisfy our own fleshly desires, to provide for our comfort, our status, our
worldly reputation or… is it truly aligned with His vision and His will for us?
If we ask only to satisfy our needs, we are befriending the world.
It is a hard question to answer if you are 100% honest with yourself,
but God gave us a helper, the Holy Spirit. God is quick to forgive and redeem
us, when we humble ourselves in His presence and surrender/yield control of our
lives to Him fully.
Let us Pray
LORD God Almighty, King of kings and Lord of lords, our Saviour and
Redeemer we enter your courts with thanksgiving in our hearts, we enter your
courts with praise for You only want what is best for us. Search our hearts and
our minds Lord, create a clean (humble) heart within us and renew our minds to
align with Your will for us. Help us Lord to resist worldly temptations and
deliver us from the evil one. For to you alone belongs the Glory and the Honour
and the Majesty forever and ever. Amen.
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PASTORA HESMA
