James 4:7-8
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Every day in our spiritual lives, we face – 1, a saving God and 2, the devil. Every day, a spiritual life must decide – 1, to submit to God, 2, and to resist the devil. When a spiritual life resists the devil, the devil becomes afraid, leaves, runs away. A spiritual life must practice godliness. Only a godly life can come near to God, and only by coming near to God can He come near to you.
How can we come near to God? We must confess our sins, repent, ask for the Lord’s forgiving grace, ask that Jesus Christ’s precious blood cover and cleanse us. How do we come near to God? We must be faithful, love God, examine our hearts and minds that they are in the Lord Jesus Christ’s holy kingdom, and love God with all of our hearts, souls, minds, strength.
Hands – represent what we do; we need to submit to God’s will in all that we do.
Heart – represents our thoughts; we need to come near to God in order to know God’s will.
Hands and heart, both need to be clean in order for us to truly come near to God and submit to Him.
Today’s Scripture cautions us against two types of bad people. The first type is those who have sin. That is, those whose hands are unclean, who need to be cleansed. Do you have sin? Do your hands need to be cleansed? The second type are the double-minded, whose hearts need to be cleansed. Are you double-minded towards God? Does your heart need to be cleansed?
(From the Retreat Devotional)
～Rev. Benguang Du都本光牧師～