Draw Near To God

James 4:7 - 5:6

If you’re like me, every day you find yourself trying to dodge the fiery darts of the devil, to bystep the stumbling blocks he has thrown into your path.  He is always there trying to get us to mess up. How do we get him off of our back without falling into his traps? In our passage from the epistle of James, he gives us some more of the practical instructions that fill his letter.  In today’s passage he writes on how we can resist the devil so he will flee from us.

James begins our Scripture today with the admonition to submit ourselves to God and to resist the devil (vs. 7).  God has already defeated Satan through the death of Jesus on the cross, and he will be forever destroyed when Jesus returns.  Right now, however, Satan continues to try and tempt us into sin and following him rather than God. We can resist the devil’s terrible influence by submitting ourselves to Christ.  What does that entail? We accept His wisdom and will, not ours or the world’s.  We trust His power and love, again not ours. We also obey His commands.

When someone is bothering us, harassing us, and being a bully, the best place to be is right up next to the strong person who has promised to protect us. Throughout Scripture the Lord God has promised to protect us from the enemy of our soul, and the best place for us is to be near Him. James tells us to draw near to God, and He will draw near to us (vs. 8).  How can we come near to God? There are several things we need to do in order to draw near to Him. First, we need to submit to God (vs. 7). Yield to His authority and give Him control of our life. Then we need to resist the devil (vs. 7). We can’t yield to his temptations and expect to also stay close to God.

Next, James also instructs us to wash our hands and purify our hearts (vs 8). Cleansing the hands refers to amending our outward behavior. Purifying the heart is our inward behavior, our thoughts, motives, and desires.  Lead a pure life, and replace our desire to sin with a desire to follow God. We also need to grieve in sincere sorrow for our sins (vs. 9). In order to remain close to God we need to be truly broken over our sins.  Another thing that is needed in order to be near to God is to be humble before Him (vs. 10). Recognize that our worth comes from God alone. He gives us our worth and dignity. When we are submitted to Him, He can work through us and do great things.

As we continue in our Scripture passage, James gives us a warning about boasting about our plans for the future (vs. 13-16).  Making goals is good, but they will disappoint if we leave God out of them. The future is in His hands. One thing we can ask ourselves is, how would we react if God stepped in and rearranged our plans for the future?  We must put God’s desires at the center of our planning. If we do, He will never disappoint us.

Verse 17 gives us a brief warning about what we may think is sin or not sin.  We all know that doing something wrong is a sin, but do we realize that it is also a sin to not do right?  This is sometimes referred to as sins of commission and sins of omission. For example - telling a lie is a sin, but so also is not speaking up with the truth.  Hurting someone is wrong, and so is not being a friend when they need one. We sin, not only when we break one of God’s laws, but also whenever we do not do His will, including when we know the right thing to do, but don’t do it.  Partial obedience is disobedience.

In closing this passage, James gives some practical instructions about the role of riches in our life (vs. 1-6).  Money will be worthless when Christ returns, so we should spend our time accumulating the kind of treasures that will be worthwhile in God’s eternal kingdom. Don’t be tempted to adopt worldly standards rather than God’s standards. God’s people should be distinct by their peaceful and humble atitudes. They should also be more concerned with sharing, and meeting the needs of others than with accumulating earthly treasures.

All people are under either the lordship of Christ or the lordship of the devil. One or the other. There is no middle ground. Who is your lord?