Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; James 4:8a
Today we are going to look at the next 2 commands:
- “Draw Nigh….to you”– At one time the only ones who could “draw near” to God were the Levitical priests. To get right with God you had to go through a priest. (Exodus 19:22, Leviticus 10:3, Ezekiel 44:13). Now because of Jesus, we can all draw near to God because we have been given access to Him by the blood of Christ.
Think about how amazing this verse is. Now we are BEING COMMANDED to do something that previously was impossible. “Draw nigh” speaks of a relational closeness. The Creator of the universe wants us to draw near to him. We can have a close, intimate, love relationship with God.
- “Cleanse your hands“- Remember that James is addressing jewish believers who would have understood the ceremonial law of the old testament priests. Part of approaching God for the priest was the process of washing hands.
God is holy. He is completely seperate from sin. Our sin problem must be taken care of so we can draw near to Him.
“Cleanse your hands”also speaks to having our righteous standing with God show up in the things we do. To be ready to work for Christ, our lives must be clean.
Study the Scriptures with Ben Jennings 
This passage is saying that draw near to god like be close to him and he will be close to you. You should clean your hands of all your sins. Your heart should also be pure and good,
This is saying that we need to draw closer to god and also draw others closer to him. We need to be christ like because the consaquanses are far worse if we just sit and do nothing with our lives.
Nice passage ben! 🙂 the passage is saying tht if you draw god to u he will be close to u! I love tht the lord is very close to my heart! ❤ he does so many amazing things in my life tht it's unbelievable! 🙂
Great Devo! as always! Lol well love u guys and hopefully I can c u on wednesday!!! I’m still working on them!!!!! Lol! 🙂
I also believe that as we get closer to God our sins become more apparent and we need to recognize them and ask God for forgiveness. In asking for forgiveness it brings relationships closer to one another. It builds a bridge that was once lost.
I am so thankful that God did send Jesus so I can go to Him at any point ofthe day at any location and get right with Him. How awful would it be to have to wait until you were talking to a particular person at a particular time. We are very blessed to have direct access.
That’s a really good point Megan. The closer we are to God, the more apparent our sins become. It’s kind of like how a dirty shirt looks really bad next to a clean white one. The closer we get to the holiness of God, more we realize how bad our sin looks compared to God’s standard. It makes us want to do better, to repent, ask for forgiveness. I’m so thankful that Jesus gave us the gift of a second chance, So we can “cleanse our hands” and start over.
What this is saying is that we need to draw closer to God but we can’t because the sin in are life. It sees that we need to cleanse are hands we can do that by asking for forgiveness.
“Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.” So if we draw closer to God, in return, He’ll draw closer to us too! That’s seriously cool! 🙂 I know sometimes I can feel my relationship with God is one-sided, like I’m always praying and talking to Him but it seems like He never talks back. But right here, James is telling me the opposite! Having a relationship with God is definitely different than any other relationships we have, but I think that just means because it’s different, we have to want it even more and work harder to be close to God! If our relationship with Him is where it should be, it’s a whole lot easier to have a good relationship with those around us. Just being close to God here on earth is a reward in itself, but we get way more! We also get to spend eternity with Him in Heaven! I can’t wait for that! But for now, I really want to draw close to God!
I think cleansing our hands is just like asking for forgiveness. When we wash our hands, we’re getting all the dirt and the nasty stuff of our hands and making them clean. We do the same when we ask for forgiveness, we ask God to get rid of all the nasty stuff we’ve done and make us clean again! I always finding myself asking for forgiveness cause it seems like I’m messing up all the time, but the amazing thing is that there’s no limit to how many times God will forgive us! He forgives us no matter what! 🙂
I agree with what Megan said, the closer we are to God, the more apparent our sins are. My relationship with God’s been growing and growing, and im always aware of when sin and i feel automatic guilt, and the need to go to God with it & repent. When we draw closer to God, God becomes closer to us! James goes on to say to clean your hands, sinners. I think this means when we sin we need to come clean to God. The verses intertwine- when we draw near God, God draws nearer to us. He then gives us that insight of our actions, and we need to come clean to God when we sin!
to me “cleanse your hands” means that get rid of those sins.if u draw nigh 2 God we would be close 2 him!! wouldn’t that be awesome!! i believe my realationship w/ God is growing lots! iknow i draw nigh 2 him!! great devo!! love and missu guys!!!!!!! 🙂 <3333333333333333333333333333
What I think this passage is saying is that we need to draw closer to God but sin is getting in the way of that! But it seams that we need to wash our hands to get rid of sin! And as God for forgivness! 🙂
I love what all of you are saying! Megan made a great point, and Sandi used a really cool example to go along with it, about how dirty a dirty shirt looks next to a clean shirt. Same thing with God’s holliness and righteousness. We’re all dirty shirts, but Jesus forgave us for our dirty shirts and gave us a chance to be redeemed! I think a lot of the time we think, “Ahh, I’ll just ask for forgviness later. God loves me no matter what.” God does love us no matter what, but this is a very wrong attitude to have! We need to love God back, and by doing that we need to realize the sins we’re committing and get them out of our lives! It’s the coolest thing in the world to me that I can talk to the creator of the universe, the creator of mankind, the creator of everything anytime I want. He loves me and wants a relationship with me, if I’ll have one back with Him! He’s not a “celebrity” seeking fame and money, but a justice and humble God seeking love from His children! I love this verse because I think we all forget to do this. We forget to “clean off the dirty sins from our hands”. Great reminder! I love God and love that after all I’ve done, He still loves me! 🙂
If we sin we need to make it right with God. We need to “clean our hands” The other thing this is saying….if we want to be closer to God we have to TRY TO GET CLOSER TO HIM and then in return He will come closer to us. “I love all who love me. Those who search for me shall surely find me. Proverbs 8:17” “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you James 4:8” I feel like lately I’ve been closer to God than I’ve ever been and this weekend when I went to my friend’s church I realized how much I still don’t have when it comes to my relationship with God. When I see people who are soo passionate about God it inspires me that I can have more of God. At my friends church they’re all about worship. When they sang their songs and said their prayers I could tell they were doing it with this passion for God. They just give worship their all. I feel like at our church we kind of rush through worship time…I feel like our church is lacking in that area. Sorry if that’s offensive, but I just think we should get more into worship since God wants us to worship Him with all our heart. That has nothing to do with the lesson, but that was just on my heart. Well, actually, I think if we praise Him with all our heart it could help us become closer to Him. “Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! …” Psalms 150:1-6
there really is soooooooo much we can praise God for, but we just take Him for granted so much!
For God to use you and be effective first you need to get some stuff out of your life so you can be effective. When we decide to surrender our lives God will use it and turn it in to something huge. He can do amazing things through us we just need to surrender and let Him take control.