This week, we have been discovering that Jesus is not looking for people who “have it all together.” Indeed, the opposite is true. Jesus is looking for those who are sick and in need of His help. The question we are going to answer today is, how do we respond to this truth? How do we live in light of the truth that no one is too far gone to be used by Jesus, and He comes to us while we are still lost in sin and offers us healing, hope, forgiveness, and restoration in Him?
James helps us to see how to respond to Jesus’ message of hope and healing in light of what He has done for us in James 4. He writes in this passage of Scripture, “Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world” (verse 8). In light of what Christ has done for us, James invites us to draw close to God and turn to Him and away from our sins. He calls us to repent and let go of our sins and anything competing with God for our attention and affection. We are also, James tells us in this passage of Scripture, to grieve over our sin and repent of it. He writes in verse 9, "Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter and gloom instead of joy." This is a call to recognize the gravity and weight of our sin and divided loyalty. In other words, we are to humble ourselves. When we do humble ourselves, James writes, the Lord "will lift [us] up" (verse 10). He will use us and give us new opportunities to serve and follow Him.
Each one of us has broken God's heart as a result of our sins. Even still, He invites us to come to Him, repent of our sins, and seek to obey and follow Him instead of living for our sinful, selfish natures. This, my friend, is how we can respond to His gracious invitation to turn to Him for forgiveness, life, hope, and peace.
Is there anything in your life you need to repent of? Maybe you have been going in the wrong direction, toward the things of this world instead of the things of God. Today, your call is to repent. Turn back to God and commit to turning toward Him and not the things of this world.
1What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
4 You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5 Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. 6 And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”
7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
11 Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. 12 God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?
13 Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” 14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. 15 What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” 16 Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.
17 Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.
