GETTING TO KNOW GOD:
WALKING WITH JESUS DAY BY DAY
TEXT: "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil,
and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to
God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify
your hearts, ye double minded." - James 4:7-8
The
past several weeks have been sad & tragic days for our nation. The uproar over the Confederate flag and
controversial Supreme Court decisions has been the main topic of discussion on
social media. I think it is wise for
Christians to step back for a moment and reflect upon our calling. This world is not our home. We are citizens of a better country. I fear that the politics of our time can
easily distract us from worshiping Christ, as He deserves. I also fear that Christians have become much
more bold and vocal about politics than they ever did about Jesus. Perhaps God is trying to get the attention
of the American church. Certainly we
need to stand for the truth and refuse to compromise with the world. However, our focus should be on knowing God
& making Him known. In the book of
Acts, the Christians did not work to transform the government. Instead, the early church sought to spread
the Gospel. It would be wonderful if
the 21st century church would do the same.
I
have dedicated the first six months of my weekly blog to the subject of knowing
God. As we close this theme, I want us
to consider a practical side of knowing God.
We know Him better as we walk with Him on a day-by-day basis.
In
his short epistle, James gives us practical advise for our Christian
journey. Note four things that we
should do day-by-day:
1. STAY YIELDED
The
Bible says, "Submit yourselves therefore to God." Every day, we face the need to surrender
anew and afresh to God. Every morning,
we need to yield our will to His. Each
day, we need to die to self so that Christ may work in and through us. Like the Apostle Paul, we need to "die daily." We need to be filled with the Spirit every
day. Surrendering to God during a
revival meeting may be good, but you need to surrender to God again the next
day ... and the next ... and the next.
2. RESIST FIERCELY
Secondly,
we need to resist the devil. You will
never be able to resist the devil successfully unless you are, first of all,
yielded to God. We need God's power
within us to help us resist the devil.
The truth is, surrendered believers CAN resist the devil. Furthermore, when believers resist the
devil, he DOES flee.
3. GET CLOSER
Third,
James instructs believers to "draw nigh to God..." Have you ever heard a believer say, "I
want to get close to God"? Leonard
Ravenhill was right when he said that we are as close to God as we want to
be. Most believers expect God to draw
Himself close to them first --- then they'll draw close to Him. Notice in our text, that God requires us to
draw close first, THEN He will draw near to us. Why is that? God wants us
to desire Him enough to take a step of faith and seek Him. Do you desire the
Lord to the extent that you are seeking Him daily?
4. REMAIN CLEAN
Finally,
James advises us to get clean and stay that way. James wrote, "Cleanse your hands ... purify your
hearts..." You make the effort to
be physically clean before going to work or school every day, don't you? Well, make sure you get spiritually clean
and stay clean daily. Every day, we
need a spiritual bath. Daily, we need
to experience God's cleansing. Such
cleansing is available as we take responsibility for our actions, confess our
faults and turn from our sins. The
Bible refers to this as repentance.
Repentance is an on-going activity in the life of a believer. As we get closer to God, the more our sins
are exposed to His glorious light.
Thus, we repent more as we get closer to Him. Repentance is a vital part of our spiritual growth.
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