“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” James 4:8 (NASB)
Today will be an intriguing day.
For some of my listeners, opinion writers, editorialists, broadcast colleagues, staff, family, friends, and people in the general public… Today will be a hard day!Because there had been an opportunity for our nation to turn towards the living God and away from ourselves, self interest, and the secular agenda of self worship many in my circle hoped and believed that we might. And for them this day is hard but not hopeless.
But I believe it may be hard because they/we are sad.
We are not saddened just by the loss of a man of character to a man of no perceivable moral center.
We are not saddened just by a loss of a man substance to a man of hollow words.
We are saddened because it is now clear with the options that remain in the presidential cycle of 2016, that like the momentum building towards the delegate map for one of them. The train speeds equally towards the spoken and unspoken truth of the verse above.“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
The promise expressed is actually two fold. It is both possible to draw near to God, and it is also preferable. The inverse is also clearly implied.
And guess what?
Not an ounce of this truth has changed in the past 24 hours.
In fact let me be so bold as to say: This this verse has never been more true than it is at this very moment.Note His condition for drawing near (that which a father does with a frightened child) is not dependent upon anything external.
It is rather entirely dependent upon the surrender of one’s heart.
By you and I desiring to be nearer to God, in our heart, thoughts, attitudes, actions, reactions, behaviors and habits… He moves towards us!
It doesn’t matter how secular a society becomes, how godless the candidates may be, how utterly messy all of life might be outside of you and around us… He draws near.
Let me also be so bold as to proclaim this: There is no circumstance, adversity, trial, trauma, separation, ruin or even death that can denounce the promise of these words!None!
God’s presence is assured! His hope is present! His redemption from the suffering of life–great & small–temporal & eternal–is unstoppable.
So if you are happy… …Draw near to God!
If you are sad… …Draw near!
Angry… …Draw near!
Discouraged… …Draw near!
Depressed… …Draw near!
Disillusioned, divorced, bankrupt, abandoned… …Draw near!
His nearness is not dependent upon the power of your circumstances or the life you feel resigned to.
His nearness, like every caring father…Is dependent upon HIS love, and your heart…
Draw near! For the deepest well of love, safety, hope, encouragement, growth and joy you will ever find or know is waiting for you in His kept promise of drawing near!
So do it… draw near to God!
He is already drawing near to YOU!
