“Come near to God and he will come near to you.” James 4:8
Pastor Lee invited me to guest write on his Instagram ministry account. He provided the photo image (he’s a photographer), I wrote the quote and the message. That was kind of fun. The message is below:
▪”Draw near.” I searched the Greek word in this verse to see what it actually means.
ἐγγιεῖ means: to draw near.
I thought I’d find some deep spiritual variation of that concept. But, it is translated exactly how it is meant. So, I went back to the verse to understand what it truly says. When we get close to God, He does the same. Would that mean that He was away until we drew near? No. He NEVER MOVED. We are the ones who travel. At the moment we desire closeness, and begin to move in, He makes sure to close the gap. Even though, He is right where he’s always been, He doesn’t just stay in one place and let us travel the whole distance. But I can’t get near looking toward the things that distanced me in the first place. I have to let them go. The end of that verse reads:
“Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
It sounds harsh, but that is because those things separate us from Him and if they continue to pull on us, we’ll stay away.
The beautiful thing is that He isn’t that far even while we are wrestling with these things.
“…that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,”
Acts 17:27
He is always poised to move in our direction. We need to take the first step.▪
@pastorfromdownunder on Instagram.
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