James 4 7-10

I thought I’d write about something that has impacted my life recently. While reading different books within the bible I came across James chapter 4. Although I’ve previously read it opened my eyes massively. After researching in to it I felt compelled to share it.

Four verses really stood out, verses 7-10.

⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

It’s amazing how in 56 words there’s 10 commands of how to get closer to God if we need rescuing and understanding who God is. The commands are: submit, resist, come near, wash, purify, grieve, mourn, wail, change, humble yourselves. By taking out the command words out it leaves 44 words. So, on average 4.4 words per command. Short, sweet and direct. Its amazing how punchy these commands are. I found that this isn’t the first time a communication is short, sweet and to the point. When Mary and Martha sent a note to Jesus about Lazarus, it simply said, ‘Lord the one you love is sick’ (John 11:3). Just seven words to tell Jesus that someone was ill.

It seems on reflection that some of the commands are weird and unusual, but digging deeper into them actually shows the opposite.

Submit, I found for ages I couldn’t get to grips with this word. To most people it means to give up or give in. To lose. However, researching recently I found it’s more about finding your position, such as when a new recruit joins the army, he submits to his role and knows where he stands and what officers are above him. It’s the same within Ephesians (5:21-33), wives submitting to their husbands and husbands submitting to the church.

Resist, quite simple really to understand but sometimes hard to control the urges from the devil. As we live with free will all round us and we get easily influenced by others resisting is sometimes one of the hardest to do. When resisting we should remember our shield of faith (Ephesians 6:16), Knowing that we have faith will help us to resist the devil.

Come near, sounds easy to do however, responses from God vary and sometimes we have to change to hear them. If we’re drawing closer to God are, we walking the walk and talking the talk? Elijah found that God doesn’t always come in the busy loud times and events, but sometimes we have to step back to here him in the quiet times (1 Kings 19 11-13).

Wash, wash away your sins, we’re baptised in the holy waters and been given Gods grace. Keep the body guarded from the devil. The more that we sin the more we have to clean our hands, all sin is dirty but we have Gods’ grace.

Purify, our hearts should only be on God, no one or anything else should come between that. Why should we doubt Gods’ amazing and generous grace when we doubt him? Our rewards will be so much better if we just believe in him and trust him. Jesus blessed those who hadn’t seen his raise from the dead but believed that he had (John 20 29).

Grieve, mourn and wail all fit in to one package. Do we hurt when we sin? Do we feel sad after we’ve sinned? When we repent do, we beg God for forgiveness and actually feel forgiven or do we just brush it off? We should open our hearts when we repent, if we don’t then we won’t be forgiven, confess your sins and let God show his mercy and grace.

Change, if we’re happy sinning would we be happier living in Gods’ glory and getting our true pleasure in heaven? We should be changing from our sinful nature to living for God. If we can live for God and leave our sin behind, then we’ll have changed our hearts and be transferred our hearts view to him, but it isn’t easy. Sometimes it takes time, like a caterpillar evolving into a butterfly there's no quick fix.

Humble yourselves, don’t compare yourselves to other, keep yourself submitted to God. Look at what God expects of us. Why should we compare ourselves to others when its not our job to judge others? Be humble and think what your live would be like without God.

The whole chapter really impacted my life recently. I'd suggest reading the rest of chapter 4 and try and follow the ten commandments of James. 

(All quotes from NIV translation).

Praising In The Storm.

So its been just short of two years since my last blog post. During that time there has been plenty of ups and down. After seeing a service today from Trent Vineyard I thought it was time to finally put my thoughts to paper and write another blog praising God during the hard times.

Since the start of 2020 the world has been a tough place for all of us with this virus flying around. However, just have a look at what the the lock down has done all over the world. Viennas' waters are now clean of pollution and are now clear, the smog over China has disappeared, it has brought friends, neighbours and families closer together, its shown how mentally strong people are and how as a country we can pull together to get through a bad time.

However, the meaning of this blog is to show you the good things out of sad events. Even in the bible it says to praise the lord in all circumstances Psalm 34:1 (I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips). We can all do this when things are going our way, but most of us fail to praise God when bad things happen.

At the start of the year I lost someone very dear to me who was also my cornerstone. Even while watching over her in hospital, slowly passing away I could still praise God for the glorious 28 years we’d had together. During that time two bible verses came to mind. Romans 10:9, (if you confess with you mouth that Jesus is Lord and belief in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved),and John 14 2-5, (In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also, and whither I go ye know, and the way ye know). It felt weird to ask someone who confess with their mouth Jesus is King when they couldn’t respond so a rare smile was accepted. 

A friend of mine also had a bad start to 2020. A death in the family also coupled with the loss of the family pet, a cancelled wedding and a close family member having major surgery. Even syringe this tough time we can still praise. She had memories of spending time with the family member and pet. She still had her dad after his major surgery and they still had the family wedding to look for to. Again in a place of darkness light was shining brightly.

Even in the bible in Acts Paul was praising in prison after being beaten, striped and imprison for his faith. At the stroke of midnight he started celebrating, singing and praising God even though he was in such a bad time. Acts 16 22-25 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

Job was still able to praise God even when he was losing everything around him. Job 1: 20-22 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

    and naked I will depart.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;

    may the name of the Lord be praised.”

In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

It’s just amazing how in dreadful circumstances there are still good things that be praised and brought out of it. After after failure, death, illness and heartbreak.

The best pound I ever spent was in a book called Count It All Joy. If you ever thought your life was bad, please read that book. After all the bad events that happen in this woman’s life she still has the presence, faith and grace to praise.

Praise be to God!