Draw Close to God

Come close to God, and God will come close to you.

James 4:8 (NLT)

Today we are going to look at a few verses in the book of James to see what it looks like to draw close to God.

How do you come close to God? How do I come close to God? Does drawing close to God entail the meager hour and half we might give Him on Sunday morning? Does picking up my Bible and reading a verse or two before I fall asleep count as drawing close to God? What about my hurried or harried prayer whenever I need something? Is that what James is talking about in this passage? Now these might be a perfectly reasonable starting point for drawing close to God but James goes into much more detail about how God expects you to draw close to Him.

1) Humble yourself and resist evil.

So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

James 4:7

This is the first thing you must do if you want to draw close to God. You must yield to His authority and to His will. You must commit your life to Him, trust in Him, and be willing to follow Him. This may be step one but unfortunately most people (including myself) get hung up right here and this is probably where I will lose the most readers. I have spent a lot of time on trusting God and obedience to Him in this blog so I’m not going to go over it again at this time. Suffice it to say that yielding your will for His will and trusting and obeying God is the key to drawing close to Him. For more information look in January 2011 on this blog.

2) Lead a pure life.

Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

James 4:8

This is the step that may mean we have to do something uncomfortable like telling someone that we regularly hang out with that we can’t anymore because they may be a bad influence on us. This may mean we have to change our viewing habits or be more choosy about what we read. This may mean that instead of going to the movies or watching football on a Sunday morning we may have to start going to church to find out what God has in store for my life and how He wants me to live. This may mean putting less faith in secular know-it-alls and talk show hosts and start believing in the Word of God. This definitely means that we must replace our desire to sin with a desire to experience God’s purity.

3) Be truly sorry for your sins.

Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.

James 4:9

Never be afraid of expressing your true sorrow to the Lord for what you have done. A cavalier attitude just won’t cut it. I know several people that have said things to me like, “I know I’m going to hell but we are going to have one big party down there!” or “I know I’m going to be judged and I’ll just deal with it when the time comes.” People wake up!! It’s not going to be a party and there is still time to get right with God!!

If you don’t experience true sorrow for your sin you might want to reconsider your standing with God and look deep within yourself to see if you are truly saved. I know that for me personally, when I sin it grieves me. It cuts me to the core when I hurt my Father because of my disobedience and when I put my will before His will I feel sorry and ashamed. For a true picture of sorrow over sin look at Psalm 51 and see how David poured out his heart to God. If you don’t think your sin is a big deal you might want to watch The Passion of the Christ and see visually just what Jesus went through for you and your sins so you could spend eternity with Him. Every lash of that whip, every torn piece of flesh, every nail pounded into His hands and feet, and every agonizing breath on that cross was for you and I. That was the penalty paid for our sins.

These three steps are probably the hardest things to do in the world! These three things are going to take each of us a lifetime to work on and we won’t truly perfect them until we personally come face-to-face with Jesus Himself.

The Good News is that that He is here to help us. His Spirit will guide and lead us if we let Him. His Word will teach us and convict us if we allow it. Hard stuff but so worth the reward.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

James 4:7-10 (NLT)