Draw Near To God

By Sarah Brady

“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” James 4:8a (ESV)

Have you ever had a discussion with yourself? I know I have. During many parts of my life, I used to have a conversation with myself that went something like this:

“You know, Sarah, you just sinned.”

“Yes, self, I know I just sinned.”

“You know, Sarah, that God doesn’t like sin.”

“Yes, self, I know that God doesn’t like sin.”

“Why then, Sarah, if God doesn’t like sin, are you going to talk to Him now, right after you sinned?  After all, if He doesn’t like sin, He probably isn’t too thrilled to hear from  a sinner right now . . .”

And do you know what I’d do?   I’d put off talking to God, wait to spend time in His word, and grow more and more distressed at my distance from God—when I was the one causing the distance, I was the one refusing to talk, I was the one who refused to be close; thus, I was choosing to remain in my sinful situation.

Then one day, as I was reading in the New Testament, I came across James 4:8:  “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you” (ESV).

That verse made me stop and think.   This statement is phrased as a promise, but a conditional one.   In our vernacular, we might express this sentence this way: “If you get closer to God, He will get closer to you.”   Basically, if I wanted to diminish the distance between my Father in Heaven and me, I needed to take the first step.

I regarded the concept a bit warily, even though I knew it was a promise.  After all, how many times have people made me promises and broken them?  They might have been comparatively little assurances, like, “Sure, we’ll be available next weekend” (and then they weren’t), or , “We’ll call you soon” (and then they didn’t). 

Sometimes they were bigger guarantees, such as, “I’ll always give you a shoulder     to cry on” (and then she was nowhere to be found), or, “You can have confidence in   me” (and then he betrayed the trust).   I wondered how I could believe God would keep this promise when so many people, made in His image, had failed to keep theirs.

Then I realized how wrong my thinking was.  After all, God is not pleased with the wrongs we do; moreover, He is certainly not changed by them!  Instead of looking toward humans and their faults, I should to look toward God and His perfection.  I needed to believe His Word to be good—so good that I could test it by stepping out on what little faith I had, inching toward Him and trusting that He would stride toward me.

 
Do you know what I learned? God does move closer to us when we move closer to Him (ESV)!  Why?  Because the wonderful fact of the matter is this: God wants to be close to us.  Just take a moment to let that thought resonate in your mind and soul: God, the Almighty One, Creator of the universe, Defender of the weak, Healer of the broken, Alpha, Omega, the Beginning and the End, the great I AM, wants to be close to you. Now, that’s a thought worth discussing—with yourself, or someone else!


 

Sarah Brady is an assistant professor and a writer. She is married to a wonderful man who is currently in medical school. They enjoy serving together at church, where he teaches a Bible study class and she sings in the choir and in an ensemble. In her free time (what little there is), she likes to read, write, act, and go hiking.  If you would like to comment on this article, feel free to email writers@blessedlady.com.

Our Father