Cling to God

James 4:7-10

7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

If I were to ask myself, "Do i really seek to draw close to God?" My answer would not always be yes. I have to humble myself daily asking for forgiveness of the sins in my life, so I can draw close to Him.

To submit to God, as James writes here, is like following your commander in a military sense. To be willing to receive instructions from God. This is coupled with resist the devil, which I can't help but notice that it follows submitting to God. How can we resist the devil if we skip submitting to God?

The next part we see is the act of us and God drawing nearer to each other. What a beautiful picture of a relationship with the God of the universe. God desires that we draw near to Him and He will do likewise to us. God will not turn his back on those that seek Him out. We see this in the next statement when James refers to sinners cleansing their hands and purifying their hearts. The term sinners is generally used when referring to unbelievers and I believe that it is the same here. The unbeliever needs to repent on the outside and in the heart. True repentance is turning away from the sinful life we have along with a change in attitude. Repentance is a shown through our heart and our actions. The believer also needs to confess daily the sins in their lives and turn away from that sin. To keep sin in our life is putting up a wall between you and God. Its hard to have a relationship with a barrier in the way.

Verse 9 is speaking about how we should react to sin in our lives. We should be mournful of our sin. We cannot continue to laugh off our sin as though its nothing. We cannot continue in sin and give no thought to how God looks at sin and the consequences. We need to be broken over the sin in our lives and humble ourselves before God, asking forgiveness, so we can be lifted up. There is nothing quite like being in Gods will and in a drawn in close relationship with Him.

Lord, help me see the sin in my life, and to repent of it. Give me the strength to resist the devil, that I may draw close to you. May your light shine through me for the world to see, so that they to, may draw close to you. Amen.