Drawing Near to God without holding back

James 4:6-11  If we are to draw near to God and Him to us, then we can’t let sin get in between.  The Lord when He is tempted for forty days and nights, rebukes the devil and doesn’t let Him have any room.  We need to do the same we need to resist the devil.  We need first to submit to God and then resist the devil.  We need to keep from allowing the devil a place between us and God.  Sin is like lead.  God is like a magnet and we are like a metal object.  The magnet draws the metal object towards itself unless there is lead between the magnet and the metal object.  Are we allowing the lead of Satan keep us from being drawn closer to God?  Are we allowing ourselves to be kept from truly being drawn near to God?  We need to draw near to God without holding back. 

                Not too long ago, my prayer was to be drawn closer to God, but through the Word and not hardships.  This type of prayer is not a true desire to be drawn closer to Christ.  You see I had my eyes on this world.  I was worried that when I was drawn closer to God, He might use circumstances to do it.  Years ago I prayed for patience and right afterwards everything broke loose.  So when I prayed to be drawn closer to God, I did so with my eyes on the problems that might come my way.  But God won’t bring anything into our lives that isn’t for our good.  He used a recent situation to knock me upside the head and wake up to realize that if I am holding back in my walk with Him, I am back sliding.  I thought I was doing all right, why I teach Sunday School, am a deacon, etc.  Why I was working in the church.   But the one thing I wasn’t doing was praying that God would conform me to the image of Christ.  I didn’t want to have to change.  I had grown complacent in my walk with Christ.  Complacency in our walks with God are signs we are no longer walking.  Habbakuk 2:4 says the Just live by their faith,  Other places in the Bible we are told the Just walk by faith and not by sight.  Well, when I prayed holding back, I was not walking by faith.  Faith is trusting God no matter what.  If adversity comes God will see us through.  He will never allow us to suffer anything that is not for our good.  God is our heavenly father.  He loves us and wants us to be conformed to the image of Christ.  We need the rough spots of our lives to be sanded off.  We must be willing to allow Him to prepare us for heaven, without holding back. 

                Troubles in life are not always enjoyable, seldom are, but they serve a purpose.  We learn to rely on God then.  The Bible says, when I am weak then am I made strong.  Paul suffered persecution, beatings, imprisonment, torture, etc. for Christ.  Stephen was martyred for his faith.  Many people since have suffered more than we will ever suffer, yet they had more joy in Christ than we have too!  Paul and Silas sat in a jail singing and praising God, they were full of Joy.  Their walk by faith allowed the to have joy in adversity.  They allowed themselves to draw close to God without holding back.  They gave everything they had to God and let Him use them.  Sometimes we say we have given everything to Christ, but yet we make provision for the flesh.  We pray to be drawn closer to Christ, but we ask to be spared from trials.  This is the equivalent of asking a teacher for an A, yet refusing to take the test.  We cannot allow ourselves to make provisions for the flesh.  If we do sin the comes between us and God and we no longer are drawn closer.  We must Submit to God and resist the devil.  This means we must realize that God is our sovereign Lord and all that we say and do should be to His glory and not our own.  We need to care about the things of heaven, and not the things of earth.  We have to yield totally to God. Albert Barnes states, that we must be “submitting ourselves in all things to God.”  God wants our total and complete submission.

                Then we need to resist the devil.  When the devil comes around tempting us, we need to remind him that he is a defeated foe.  Christ beat the devil on the cross.  Christ has won the victory for us!  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  This includes resisting the devil.  When temptations come, we need not toy with them in our minds, but ask God for help and resist the devil.  Albert Barnes states, “To obtain favor of God, it is necessary to put away our sins.”  Resisting the devil is submitting to God and submitting to the devil is resisting God.  When we get our eyes on the things of this world and allow them to get our eyes off of God, we then are no longer in submission to God.

                Verse 8 says “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.”  But notice how we draw nigh to God, through repentance from sin.  “Cleanse your hands ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” Verse 9, “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.”  This is talking about true repentance.  Getting down on our knees, crying out to God to forgive us of our sins.  Humbling ourselves before God.  Calling out like King David did in Psalm 51, “Have mercy upon me, O God”  True repentance from sin.  We must truly repent and let God have control in order to be drawn closer to Him.  We cannot draw closer holding onto the things of this world.  We must confess our sins and forsake them.  I John 1:9 “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  He will wash away our sins when we ask Him too.  As John Calvin once said, I John 1:9 is not a license to sin, but a remedy for sin.  As we draw closer to God we have to let go of the things of this world.  The things of this world are sin.  James 4:6,10  God will forgive us as we humble ourselves before Him and let Him have complete control.

                I Peter 5:6,7 Once again humility is mentioned.  We must humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift us up.  “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.”  Humility is needed to keep God from resisting us.  Lack of humility and trying to do it on our own will keep us from drawing closer to God.  When we cast all our care on Him, we need not try to carry some of the load.  When we trust Him to carry our burdens that means we let Him carry all of them.  He is our strength in the time of trials.  When we draw near to God we need to be willing to do whatever it takes to become more like Him.  We must be willing to suffer trials and tribulations.  After all,  Christ, endured mocking, scourging, and death on the cross for us.  He loved us enough to die for us.  He loved us so much that He endured more hardships than we will ever be able to imagine.  If Christ was willing to give His life for us, isn’t that what He deserves from us?  He deserves our entire life without anything held back.  Jesus didn’t hold back when He gave His life for us, so in turn we need not hold back when we give our life to Christ.

                In the end by humbling ourselves and giving our problems and our all over to Christ, what happens?  We are drawn closer to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We become more like Him.  Someday we will be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.  Let’s all draw closer to God not holding back.   At salvation we humble ourselves and throw ourselves on the mercy of God.  We cry out to God “save me”.  This attitude is one that we need to keep through out our Christian life.  Without God we are nothing.  This road to being drawn closer to God is a continuous road.  We must be continually humbling ourselves, praying, seeking God’s face, submitting to God, resisting the devil, and placing all our trust on God.

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