Draw Near to HIM

James is definitely one of my favorite books, when I read it I feel like he understands where I am coming from. It is so relate-able to life yet so convicting. This verse has definitely been on my mind for a while, today's devotions were wonderful, but I am going to discuss this verse today:

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself before the Lord, and he will life you up.

James 4:8-10

Verse 4 has been the one really tugging at my heart. All I need to do is draw near to God and He will draw near to me. The issue that has been happening is I haven't been in full throttle in drawing near to Him and then I want to get angry when He doesn't draw near to me! I have been double-minded for so long. The rest of the verse might be confusing, He is telling us to not be joyful? He wants us to lose all worldly joy; we need to grieve in our lacks and humble ourselves before Him by not being proud. We need to be grieving and ashamed of being double-minded, we must wash our hands. In doing so, He will be the one to lift us up. Sometimes we feel joy in our own accomplishments and then we forget to praise God, He wants us to forget about things we have done and praise him.

A good lyric from a Casting Crowns song:

"Not because of who I am, but because of what You've done. Not because of what I've done, but because of who You are!"

There is no reason why we deserve anything! He give it to us when we have acknowledged Him and His awesome power. We get joy and humility as a reward when we have bowed our bodies and heads to the His majesty! 

My savior, He can move the mountains, my God is mighty to save! Forever, author of salvation, He rose and conquered the grave.