James 4:8-10
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
More choices. Reading this scripture, I see that again I have a choice to make. It says draw near to God, not do nothing but cry and complain and God will notice and just simply draw you in and make everything ok. Wouldn't that be easier? But God created us on purpose with a free will and this is another example where He wants us to use it and make a choice to draw near to Him. Well, I have not done a very good job of this lately. I have allowed the devil to wreak havoc in my life and fill my head with lies. I've allowed him to convince me I am worthless, useless, unloved, slow, sick, old and just worn out. I have allowed at first seemingly small sins to creep into my life. Pride, jeoulosy, covetousness, grumbling, complaining. I have allowed myself to be decieved. But God is so good and His grace and mercy are new for me everyday! The Holy Spirit has lovingly shown me this scripture to show me I don't have to allow these deceptions to control my life, I just need to make a choice. I need to choose to draw near to God. I need to be intentional about it, live life on purpose. As I have made my choice to draw near to my God He is drawing me near to Him and tucking me in His secret place of love and protection and He is thankfully helping me close the door to the sin in my life.
The other choice I need to make is to cleanse my hands of my sins and purify my heart. I need to do this. God will surely help me when I ask but He will not just take that sin out of my life. I need to turn away from it and like the scripture says draw near Him. Near Him is the only place He can rescue me and keep me safe. I need to cry over what I've done and how I have sinned against my God and my brothers and sisters in Christ. I need to feel true sorrow and I need to feel broken. That's how I need to go to the cross, broken. That brokeness is beautiful in the eyes of my God and it will only be there, at the foot of the cross, broken and humbled that He will be able to start picking me up and putting me back together. I am so thankful that His eyes are always searching for me and He'll never stop loving me nor will He ever leave me broken. He is so worthy!!!!
That was very nice... I am praying for you. Lovin' ya!!
ReplyDelete