James 4: Come Near to God

“⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” -James 4:7-10

God promises to come near to those who come near to him. So why do often feel distant from him? James offers a fuller context of the habits that often block our intimacy with the Almighty.

First, we are to submit ourselves to God. Drawing near requires giving up our own agenda.

Second, we must resist the devil. In other words, we not only seek God but also stand against temptation.

Third, and of great importance, is our humility before the Lord. We dare not come near to God in pride or our list of demands. He is not a cosmic Santa Claus or a creator genie. He is God. He created us. We worship him.

Only when we draw near to God in full humility can we expect deep intimacy.

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Dillon Burroughs is the author and coauthor of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of all 31,173 verses of the Bible at HolyWritProject.com. Find out more about Dillon at Facebook.com/readdB or readdB.com.