Trekking through the Scriptures is an adventure. Feel free to comment here, or email me personally.

Monday, October 3, 2011

James 4:6-10


But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: 
      “ God resists the proud,
      But gives grace to the humble.”
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

                                                        drawing near
                The Spirit of God yearns jealousy, but how can our motives and actions ever be true enough for His intensity? The Lord’s measure of grace surpasses His measure of jealousy.  That grace is available to us if we humble ourselves and admit the need, submitting to God.  Submission itself is contrary to a prideful stance and becomes a resistance to pride.  The devil’s primary purpose is to separate God and man.  So what do you think might be one of man’s most detrimental attitudes? Pride!  If we act in the opposite spirit, the spirit of humility, the devil flees, for he finds no place in submission to God, and we are more free to draw near to God.
                How, specifically, can we “draw near to God”?  James gives some pointers, but if we aren’t careful in our reading and thinking, we may just think God is out to spoil our fun!  That, however, is far from the truth.
“Cleanse your hands” in the OT frequently refers to outward behaviors:  recognize any actions which are opposing God’s love in the world, seek His forgiveness, and set a new course.  “…you sinners” : who you are when not behaving as His.  “Purify your hearts” is also an OT reference and has to do with the inner life and thoughts:  take an honest look at attitudes and repent of those which are not driven by love.  “…you double-minded” harkens back to 1:8, as a call to undivided loyalty in your thinking.
“Lament and mourn and weep…” is a call to come to terms with your own internal and external sin.  When truly grasped, sorrow and remorse are unavoidable, for the sin begun in your mind and carried out in the body brings damage both to yourself and to others.  This damage is the opposite of the Spirit of God’s life and love.   The foolish, ‘take-sin-lightly’ sort of laughter mocks the seriousness of sin.  And the ‘joy’ that is had apart from, or is opposed to God is temporal.  It would be better to now feel saddened, humbled, and perhaps even wounded by the true state of affairs, than to continue blithely along to your own destruction.
One must understand life as it truly is, in order to truly let it go.  And when we “lose” our life in this way, we “find” it anew in fellowship with God through the grace, the victory, and the peace Jesus extends to us.  Do you understand your life as it truly is?  Are you willing to lose your life and draw near to God?
Read and Pray:  Deut. 9:4-6, Prov. 6:16-19, Matt.16:25-26,

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