Draw Near to God

There is mercy in a command that tells wanderers where to go. JAMES 4:7-8 (ESV) says, "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."

James does not speak softly to spiritual compromise. He calls for submission, resistance, cleansing, and purification. But right in the middle is a promise: draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Conviction is not meant to drive us into despair. It is meant to bring us near.

Notice the order. Submit to God. Resist the devil. Draw near. Many people want nearness without surrender, or victory without resistance. Scripture gives a better way. The heart must stop trying to make peace with God and sin at the same time.

PSALM 145:18 (ESV) says, "The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth." Nearness is promised to truthful calling, not religious pretending.

If you have drifted, do not make the return complicated. Submit again. Resist what has been pulling you away. Draw near with honesty. God is not far from the humbled heart. He gives more grace.

This promise is especially precious because compromise often makes us feel distant from God and too ashamed to return. James does not say, "Stay away until you are strong." He says draw near. But drawing near includes surrender. Bring clean hands and a purified heart, not as self-made perfection, but as repentance willing for God to cleanse what sin has dirtied.

Nearness with God is worth the cost of surrender. Whatever has been keeping the heart double-minded cannot give what it promises. Draw near to the Lord who gives more grace, and let distance end today.