Monday 10th
NIV (vv6-8) – ‘But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded’.
ESV (vv6-8) – ‘But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore 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.’
‘Draw (come) near to God, and he will draw (come) near to you’. Back in the early 2000’s I was busy painting the interior of the Church where I was then pastoring in Sudbury, Suffolk and I had some music playing and a song that I remember so well listening to time and time again was ‘Draw me close to you,
never let me go, I lay it all down again, to hear You say that I’m your friend,
you are my desire, no one else will do, ’cause nothing else can take Your place, to feel the warmth of Your embrace, help me find the way, bring me back to You. You’re all I want, you’re all I’ve ever needed, you’re all I want, help me know You are near.’ It is a song that has often come back to me especially in a time of need.
To draw near to God is to draw near to the safest place there is, to draw near to the greatest place there is and to draw near to the most intimate place there is, for in drawing near to God we are drawing near to the One who is in the words of a hymn, the hidden source of calm repose. We need to, we must draw near to God, it should be our hearts desire. In its context to the previous point we considered, ‘resist the devil’, we will find it much easier to do this if stay in proximity to the heart of God, for this to happen we need to have a perpetual desire to draw near or as the NIV puts it to come close to God. In my mind I see a picture of a baby snuggling up to its mother, or of the lambs in the field running to be close to their mothers when they see an intrusion or threat of some sort.
We can come close to God by maintaining a regular relationship with him through our own daily devotion and prayer, also through (as I have often mentioned) being in fellowship with other likeminded believers, for as John in his epistle reminds us ‘and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.’ (1 John 1:3) and in the context of the verses surrounding these here in James 4 by ensuring that we move away from the world and the things that will so easily come between us and God.
The challenge I want to bring to each one of us today is two-fold, firstly, are we drawing close to God, staying in proximity to him, or is it possible that at this moment in your experience you have drifted a little or maybe even moved away from the heart of God? Can I encourage you to consider drawing near again, come close again and feel the heartbeat of his love toward you and feel the warmth of his embrace, secondly, maybe at this moment your life is filled with worry, care, or anxiety, and it is causing you to neglect your ongoing fellowship with God, it has become like a wedge that has come between you and God, well, listen to what he says, through his Son, ‘”Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”’ Mathew 11:28–30
Draw near to God, come near to God, come close enough to hand all that is causing you your worry, care and anxiety over to him for he cares for you. As Peter says, ‘Cast all your care on him,’ WHY? ‘for he cares for you’. Without wanting to sound irreverent, come and snuggle up closely to God, keep close to him, stay in that place of safety, security, and salvation.
They say that the calmest place during a hurricane is right at the centre, the eye of the storm, during the storms of life, the safest and best place to be is in the centre, close to the heart of God.
‘Draw me close to you, never let me go’, as you are willing to ‘draw near to God, he will draw near to you’.