DRAWING NEAR TO GOD “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” James 4:8
Sometime we might be tempted to agree with the old German reformer, Martyn Luther, that the Epistle of James is an epistle of straw and should be debarred from the cannon of scripture. James puts the believing sinner to work. He doesn’t say, as some would like to read it, ‘If you feel yourself a distance from God, sit tight and wait His time, when it pleases Him He will draw near to you.’ No, no, he says, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” He says, Sinner, you cleanse your hands, and you purify your hearts.” The hardest work in the Christian’s life is keeping the heart with God. Proverbs 4:23 reads, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” I understand that there is a double keep in the Hebrew, emphasizing the vitalness of the matter, Keep, Keep, thy heart. Mr. Spurgeon has a good word on this text, “The nearer we come to God, the more graciously will He reveal Himself to us; when the prodigal came to his father, his father ran to meet him. When the wandering dove returned to the ark, Noah reached out his hand to pull her in to him. When the tender wife seeks her husband’s society, he comes to her on wings of love. Come then, dear friend; let us draw nigh to God who so graciously awaits us, yea, comes to meet us. “Did you ever notice that passage in Isaiah 58:9? There the Lord seems to put Himself at the disposal of His people, saying to them, “Here I am.” As much as to say—“What have you to say to me? What can I do for you? I am waiting to bless you.” How can we hesitate to draw near? God is nigh to forgive, to bless, to comfort, to help, to quicken, to deliver. Let it be the main point with us to get near God. This done, all is done. If we draw near to others, they may before long grow weary of us and leave us; but if we seek the Lord alone, no change will come over His mind, but He will continue to come nearer and yet nearer to us by fuller and more joyful fellowship” We must be careful not to attribute our sinful foolishness to God’s “will” as some are accustomed to doing. “The LORD must have been in my mischief because so much good came out of it.” No, we must not think foolishly. “The foolishness of man perverted his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD (Proverbs 19:3). The LORD in His wisdom and sovereign power often overrules our sinful blunders to our good, but He never relieves our responsibility to walk godly in this present world and to walk so as necessitates our drawing near to Him.
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