SCRIPTURE: Humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 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. 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. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor. James 4:7-10 NLT
THOUGHT: I don’t think I spend much time thinking about how to get honor from God, do you? It seems self-serving somehow. But the path there is hardly selfish, in fact, it’s quite impossible to be prideful about the kind of path to honor James is prescribing.
Most translations offer the word exalt for how God will respond to our humbling of ourselves. The Psalmist claims that God is exalted above the heavens, above the nations, far above all gods, and is in that position permanently (see Psalms 108:5, 99:2, 97:9 and 92:8), so it stands to reason that when God exalts, or lifts you or I up in honor, he has good perspective to keep this promise. The point is we don’t have to exalt ourselves. There is freedom in by-passing all the critics and bosses and culture-shapers and award-givers and running straight for the heart of God.
I see four conditions to being honored or lifted up our God: 1) humble yourself, don’t wait for circumstances to do it for you, 2) resist the devil and he will flee! How wonderful that God has given us the enough power to tell our enemy where to go!, 3) then come closer; draw nearer to God. Spend time in the word and worship, it will 4) convict and convince you of your divided loyalties and where you need a bath in order for God to come even closer.
It’s possible that you’ll want to stop drawing near when you get to this part. I’ve done it, so I assume others have too. Conviction and repentance aren’t very fun, but until we’ve seen ourselves in our true condition – those moments when the carefully constructed mask comes off and we let ourselves feel tears, sorrow and deep grief at what we find behind it, we won’t really understand God’s true position. As long as we’re building ourselves up, there’s nowhere for God to lift us to, but when we reach for the truth about our own hearts there is so much room for grace.
SONG: Shane and Shane, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus / Amazing Grace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1qgyLTH6Xg
PRAYER: Oh God, I turn my eyes upon Jesus, that full, complete picture of you; I look full in his wonderful face and suddenly all my own efforts at getting honor and all the things the world offers grow strangely dim. I am humbled in your light, ready to worship, ready to repent, ready for everything you see and want for me.
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