Humble Yourself: James 4: 6b - 10 (P19)

Romans 4: 6b - 10

"God opposes the proud,

but gives grace to the humble."

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.  Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Lament and mourn and weep.  Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection.  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

James is quoting ... and commentators are not sure what he is quoting.  Barclay says, "We may assume either that James is quoting from some book now lost which he regarded as Scripture, or that he is summing up in one sentence what is the eternal sense of the Old Testament and is not meaning to quote any particular passage."  Whichever it may be, James clearly communicates God's opposition to the destructive spirit of pride that has been the ruination of many a man (and woman) and God's generous gift of grace.

This kind of pride shuts itself off from God.  Why?  Well, it does not recognize need ... at all!  It also totally cherishes its own independence.  It does not owe anyone ... anything.  It also does not recognize its own sin.  Humility, on the other hand, prepares your heart to receive the gift of grace.

James made clear in verse 4 that worldliness is the enemy of godliness.  So what are we to do?  How do we deal with our problem ... our pull toward the world and its values.  It's a disease and we are all infected.  Beth Moore says that if you are not actively, deliberately dealing with it, you've got the disease!  James does not leave us hanging in a hopeless situation.  He gives us the antidote ...

• submit to God ... that means place yourself  'under' ... that means recognizing and acting on the believe that you are not more important than God, that you are receptive to His guidance and direction
• Do you need to tell God right now how you feel about Him?  Do you need to stop reading and go to prayer to verbalize your desire to submit to God?  

• resist the devil ... that's proactive, not just reactive ... it's deliberate ... it's 'armor of God' language (see Ephesians 6: 10 - 20)  Be ready ... the devil will make his moves against you ... be ready.  
• Are you ready?  Are you doing the work to prepare your spirit and heart for a frontal attack?  Are you placing the living Word of God into your heart so that it is there when the devil throws arrows at you?  

• draw near to God ... that's an intentional discipline to make "with God" a prominent part of our lives, of our days
• What are you doing today to 'draw near' to God?  Are you setting aside any time?  Or are you just too busy?  

• cleanse and purify ... confession is vital ... staying 'confessed up' with God ... not letting sin hold a place in our lives ... not protecting pet sins that we really, really want to do and, after all, they don't hurt anyone else and no one will know, etc, etc, etc ... 
• What are you hanging onto that needs to be confessed?  Is there anything that you have confessed, numerous times, and you just won't let go of?  Why not?  Do you not believe that God can and will forgive?  He said He would ... so you don't believe Him? 

• weep and mourn ... over sin ... over the condition in our world that was created to be so different ... over the conflict and warring ... not only among countries but even within myself.  Hear Jesus when He said, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." (Matthew 5: 4)
• Do you mourn over the sin that causes such corruption and destruction in our world ... in our cities ... in our families ... in ourselves?  

• humble yourself before the Lord ... get on your knees to pray (it's a great reminder of your position before the holy Lord)  Let God be the one to lift you up.  

I close our thoughts today with the words of Williams Barclay:

In life, there is one sin which can be said to be the basis of all others, and that is forgetting that we are creatures and that God is creator.  When we realize our essential creatureliness, we realize our essential helplessness and go to the only source from which our helplessness can find assistance.

Such a dependence brings forth the only real independence, for then we face life not in our own strength but in God's, and we are given victory.

Lord ... today ... again ... we humble ourselves before You.  We bow ourselves before Your throne.  You are the living God.  So just as we are ... we come.