14 day plan

Intimacy with God - Part 2

Day 7 of 14

NIV

James 4:8

8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Reflection:  God had you in mind when he set up an agreement. You might even call it a “covenant”. The agreement is this: If you draw near to God (through prayer and meditation on his word in Scripture), he will draw near to you. It is extraordinary, isn’t it, that the God of the universe should make that commitment to us.

Jesus echoed something of this truth when he said: ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be open to you’ (Luke 11:9).

Each of us will have knocked on the door of friend and been disappointed to discover no one at home. We experience a sense of disappointment, of let down and of hope deferred. However, God promises to always be there for you. When he sees you coming, he will walk towards you.

I invite you to take full advantage of this promise.

Prayer:  Dear Father, the love you have that causes you to draw near to us, is wonderful and beyond understanding. I want to fully honour your love, and draw near to you––all of my days.

 

 

The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

Days

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James 4:1-17

Submit Yourselves to God

1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

4You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud

but shows favor to the humble.”

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

11Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

Boasting About Tomorrow

13Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.