Draw Near to God and Humble Yourselves before God (James 4:8-10)

SPIRITUAL DIARY

 

                                                                                                            Date:  10-22-03

 

My Worship Time      Focus:  Draw near to God & Humble yourselves before God

 

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  James 4:8-10

 

            1.  Message of the verse:  “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom.  Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”  (NASB)  “Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, you hypocrites.  Let there be tears for the wrong things you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.  When you bow down before the Lord and admit your dependence on him, he will lift you up and give you honor.”  (NLT)

            How can a believer draw near to God?  James says that first of all we are to be clean or have a clean heart.  The word for cleanse as described in the Strong’s Concordance is

“1b) in a moral sense

1b1) to free from defilement of sin and from faults

1b2) to purify from wickedness

1b3) to free from guilt of sin, to purify

1b4) to consecrate by cleansing or purifying

1b5) to consecrate, dedicate”

            The goal of every believer should be that of Romans 8:29, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”  The more we grow and mature in our walk with the Lord, the more we will be like Him, because in order to be like Him we have to draw near to Him with a clean heart.

            Humble yourselves before God (4:9-10).  What is the opposite of humility?  The word used here for humble yourselves, “AV-humble 6, abase 5, humble (one’s) self 2, bring low 1; 14,” and one of the meanings given from Strong’s is, “metaph. to bring into a humble condition, reduce to meaner circumstances.”  The NLT seems to be giving a better idea of what the meaning of humble is, “When you bow down before the Lord and admit your dependence on him, he will lift you up and give you honor.”   Now as we look at pride, which is the opposite of humility we can see that it means to be lifted up, or to lift one’s self up.  As believers we are to lift up the name of the Lord, to worship Him, to adore Him, to place Him above everything, and when we have pride we are doing just like Satan did to cause him to fall and that is to lift ourselves up. 

            Again we can look at David to see an example of how a believer is to go the things that are described in these verses.  The two Psalms that he wrote as a result of His sin gives us much insight into what God would have us to do in order to Humble ourselves before Him, and how to draw near to God, and also how we are to submit ourselves to God. 

 

            2.  Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It seems to me that when God begins to move in my life that He puts His finger upon areas of my life that He desires for me to change, and as I go through these two trials that God is in the process of sending me through he is teaching me, among other things that I am to put my trust in Him and not the money He has entrusted me with, and that I have not been worshipping Him in a way that has been pleasing to Him.  I trust the Lord will continue to work in my life to continue to make me more and more like my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

 

The Word of God was refreshing to my heart, and encouragement to me this morning as I read it.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  To trust the Lord in these two trials He has lead me into.  To continue to pray for the meeting today at 4:00 PM with Pastor Dunn and Bruce Konya, that the Lord would be glorified, that if the things that I have been learning from these verses apply to this situation in either one’s case that it would be cared for.  I pray that they would see the similarities that they have in their passion to help hurting people, and I pray that Bruce would get a firm grasp on the Sovereignty of God so that he will trust the Lord in a new and better way.

 

Memory verses for the week:  James 1:1-4 (review)

 

1.      James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad, greetings.

2.      Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,

3.      knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

4.      And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.