James 4:8

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

The Message: Say a quiet yes to God and he'll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life.

Quit playing the field.

Come near to God and He will come near to you. I always think these words just show how much of a gentleman God is. He will not force Himself on you, make you follow Him, worship Him, love Him. Yes, that is what He wants but it has to be voluntary. Something you do of your own free will and not something you do because you feel obliged, because it is the right thing to do, or everyone you know is doing it and you want to fit in.

But not only does it involve wanting on our part, it also involves moving. We need to draw close to God, and going back to the trusty Oxford English dictionary, you can see that this means:

• verb (past drew; past part. drawn) 1 produce (a picture or diagram) by making lines and marks on paper. 2 produce (a line) on a surface. 3 pull or drag (a vehicle) so as to make it follow behind. 4 pull or move in a specified direction. 5 pull (curtains) shut or open. 6 arrive at a point in time: the campaign drew to a close. 7 extract from a container or receptacle: he drew his gun. 8 take in (a breath). 9 be the cause of (a specified response). attract to a place or an event. induce to reveal or do something. reach (a conclusion) by deduction or inference. (draw on) suck smoke from (a cigarette or pipe). finish (a contest or game) with an even score.

So it is a case of moving towards God, not just standing still and expecting God to do all the work. The above definition actually says "pull or move in a specified direction." So God is gently pulling us (but, like I said above, He will not force us against our will, this all has to be voluntary) and we need to move towards Him. Have you never felt the pull to find out more, to see whether or not what people say about Jesus is right or not? Or maybe someone has told you what goes on in their church and you are interested in finding out more? Maybe you have seen the changes in friends, relatives when they become a Christian and start wondering what has caused those changes. All this, and more, is God pulling.

The previous verses told us how we can come close to God:

• Humble ourselves
• Submit to God
• Resist the devil
• Wash our hands
• Purify our hearts
• Don't be hypocrites

We need to be humble, to accept God's authority and will for our lives. This is not always easy when many times, we want our own way, we think we know best and can do what we like, when we like. Giving the authority to God, or to anyone in fact, involves sacrifice on our part as we put what God wants first. But isn't it better to bow down before God rather than worship and honour drugs, sex, money, fame, position, power, people, the things of this world?

We need to submit to God, and that means obeying. We need to stop going our own way and start listening to God, find out what His will is for our lives. And yes, I know it is easy to carry on, try to muddle along as best we can, going our own way, trying to "do good" or be a "nice person" and the turning to God when it all goes pear shaped. But God's plans for us are better than anything we could ever dream of for ourselves.

Then resist the devil, which involves putting on all of our spiritual armour and actually using it. Not just saying the words, but really believing in our hearts that we are in a battle (which we are) and using the Word of God to attack, not just to defend. Pray the word of God, don't just recite the words or read them without really taking them in, but use them as the weapon they were designed to be.

We need to wash our hands to symbolise cleanliness, getting rid of all our sins. Remember Pilate washing his hands before Jesus and then condemning him to die on the cross (Matthew 27:24)? He was removing from himself all guilt, all blame. We need to symbolically wash our hands, to get rid of all the dirt, the grime, the sin in our lives. This means turning over a new leaf, no longer using drugs, sleeping around, drinking to excess, and so on. Change our outward behaviour.

The purify our hearts, change our inward behaviour, our thoughts, our desires, our motives. Replace the carnal thoughts we have with thoughts that come from God, immerse ourselves in God's word. That doesn't mean we have to read the bible, and only the bible, or only watch God tv and nothing else. But it may involve changing what we read or watch, moderating our language, deliberately turning our thoughts away from things that are not of God, refusing to allow ourselves to think of x, y or z if we know that will cause us to sin.

And finally, don't be double minded, don't be hypocritical. Don't say one thing and do another. One of the many reasons the church has a bad name is because of church leaders who have been found out leading a double life. They have been caught out in an adulterous affair or found to be in a homosexual relationship, defrauded the taxman or even used money given to the church to fund a lavish lifestyle. We will be caught out sooner or later if our words and our walk do not match up.

My family, who are not believers, are always watching out for this in me. As a classic example, there was one day when I yelled upstairs to my daughter to tell her tea was on the table going cold, and then I walked back into the kitchen and carried on dishing it out on the plates on the worktop. One of my sons looked up and then asked me whether I had just told a lie to his sister by telling her tea was on the table when it clearly was not, and then went on to tell me that he didn't think Christians were supposed to lie…..Yes, he was only teasing me, but it just goes to show that even when you don't think people are watching or listening, or seeing how you react, how you behave, they are. What we do, how we speak, how we behave reflects not only on us but on the God we serve.

So keep these words of James close to your heart and as it says in the Message, say a quiet yes to God and he'll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field.