James 4:8-9, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.”
The Bible promises that God will draw nigh unto those who draw nigh unto
Him. Of course, the first step is to make sure you are saved. Ephesians 2:13
says that we are made nigh unto God by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
No one can walk with God, nor be close to God, who doesn't believe on Jesus
as the Christ, the Son of God for the forgiveness of sins.
As born-again Christians, God invites us to draw close to Him and tells us how. The Bible says to turn our laughter into mourning, and our joy into heaviness. Why? It's because God grieves over the sinful condition of the world. I cannot go anywhere without grieving and feeling sadness in my heart over the apostasy, wickedness, and unbelief in society today. All we hear in hellish music aired in public places; music by homosexuals, witches, whores, and God-haters. All we see is whorish and immodestly clothed women in public. You can't even go into a restaurant without hearing and seeing filth.
I was on an airplane and picked up a magazine in the pocket in front of me, published by Continental Airlines. It had several advertisements of lewd women with hardly any clothes on, so I put it back into the seat pocket and left it alone. They don't respect their Christian customers at Continental Airlines. They offered booze to passengers who wanted to buy it. I'll tell you, flying is like Sodom and Gomorrah these days. Then they advertised a chocolate bar, playing enticing music and showing the candy bar from every angle. People are so easily enticed. I hate flying, but do enjoy seeing above the clouds, which always reminds me of the Rapture when we'll meet the Lord in the clouds. Unsaved people will be left behind, which is probably 99% of the planet. You'll get what you deserve for being a fool if you are a Christ-rejecter or self-righteous religious hypocrite.
The Bible says to cleanse your hands and put away a double mind and heart. Don't expect to walk with God if you sit in a pew on Sunday and on a barstool on Friday. Don't expect God's closeness if you walk an isle on Sunday, but walk a dance floor on Saturday. You're either in or out, on or off, God's friend or the world's. You either serve God or money is an issue to you. I hate money and everything about money. You can keep it and all the problems it brings. So many people love money, prestige, and power. All I need is Jesus Christ and His precious Word.
If you want to walk with God, then you need to share God's burden for lost souls. Romans 10:15 reveals the heart of God concerning soul-winning. God thinks that the soul-winner's feet are beautiful. Proverb 11:30 calls the soul-winner wise. That means you are a fool if you don't win souls. If you know how you got saved, then you can win souls. Just tell people how you were saved... you came to God as a guilty sinner by faith in Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God (John 20:31).
If you want to be close to God, then you need to get upset about the filth on television and turn that junk off. If you want to be close to God, then you absolutely must get close to Jesus, Who came to earth as God manifest in the flesh (1st Timothy 3:16). No one can draw nigh unto God the Father who doesn't acknowledge the Son as almighty God. God is a Spirit and man cannot fellowship with God. However, man can fellowship with the human part of Jesus Christ; and then the deity part of Jesus Christ communicates with the Father. Thus, we communicate with God the Father through God the Son. Jesus plainly taught this in John 14:6... no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. This is why we pray in Jesus' name. Anyone who attempts to approach God the Father, while ignoring the Son, is wasting their time. The only way to God the Father is through God the Son, the man Christ Jesus (1st Timothy 2:5).
Hardly anyone today wants to be close to God, because it's no fun having heaviness of heart over sin and grieving over lost sinners. Albeit, this is what the great heart of God is burdened over. This is clearly evidenced by 2nd Peter 3:9 which teaches that God is not willing for any to perish, but for all men to come to repentance. The Bible says that God is not slack concerning His promise to return, but is longsuffering toward sinners, waiting for them to repent and believe. Most people want to wine and dine, have fun and party; but God wants us to fear Him, obey His Commandments, depart from sin, and warn others about the coming judgment. Go visit a graveyard regularly and you'll maintain a sense of the shortness of this life. James 4:14 says that this earthly life is as a water vapor that is here one moment and gone the next.
I love Jesus Christ because of all that He has done for this wretched sinner. I am not worthy of the least of God's tender mercies (Genesis 32:10). God is good, great, and faithful to keep all His promises! Jesus is precious (1st Peter 2:7).
If you want to draw nigh unto God, then love Him and praise Him for all He does, and for what He is, and tell Him what He means to you. We are created in the image of God. Read the first couple chapters of Genesis and you'll see that God stopped and looked over all He had created, to see whether it was good or not, and it was all good. We are created in the same likeness, looking over our work to see if we did a good job. God loves when we go to a zoo and admire God's handiwork, or behold nature and stand in awe before God for His creation. God is truly amazing!!! No artists in this world can replicate the natural beauty of a peacock or of a beautiful sunset. God is the master Artist.
God don't make junk! I know I am special to God, and so are you, created in God's image. God likes when we brag on Him, and tell Him how much we admire Him, and we take notice of the things that He does. God is humble, and avoids arrogant and proud people. If you want to be close to God, then you must humble yourself in your own eyes, placing others above yourself, biting your tongue, holding your peace, and not bullying others around. God avoids jerks. God will draw near to you if you draw near to Him in Christ's righteousness and faith, acknowledging Him in all your ways (Proverb 3:5-7). God avoids the self-righteous. We must depend upon Christ's righteousness and not our own efforts to live above reproach. No one can live above sin, but we can live above reproach with the Holy Spirit's help. God wouldn't tell us to do something that we are not able. God said cleanse your hands ye sinners. That means purposing in our heart to think, live, and do right with God's help.
God wants us to have singleness of mind and heart, being hot for the Lord (Revelation 3:15-16); and not wavering in sin and doubt day-by-day. All God expects is that we try. The Lord remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103:14). Anyone can live right if they so choose. The question is do you really want to draw nigh unto God? Philippians 2:21 says that most people seek their own and not the things which are Jesus Christs. Philippians 2:4-5 tells us that Jesus lived for OTHERS, and so should we if we are to have the mind of Christ. If you want to draw nigh unto God, then you must pull away from yourself. Drawing nigh unto God cannot be for selfish reasons to make money or seek God's approval for sin in one's life. It doesn't work that way. No one can draw close to God while totally disregarding God's Word. God is no respecter of persons and cannot be intimidated, conned, swayed, nor bullied. Amen to that! There is no corruption with God.
Drawing nigh unto God means being honest, pure of heart, sincere, and completely open with oneself and the lord. You cannot hide anything from God. Most churchgoers today attempt to straddle-the-fence, praising God with their lips while their heart is far from Him (Matthew 15:8). Some people attend Catholic Church while also falsely claiming to love Jesus Christ. You cannot draw close to God while supporting idolatry! Catholicism is of the Devil.
Amos 3:3 says that two cannot walk together unless they be agreed. This is why James 4:7-9 tells us to mourn and have heaviness of heart, and to be afflicted, and to get rid of a double mind, and to cleanse our hands of sin. If we truly want to walk with God, then we need to do things God's way. The love of money is the enemy of walking with God. You cannot serve God and mammon, you will love one and despise the other. I despise money with all my heart, because the love of money is the root of all evil (1st Timothy 6:10). I want to vomit every time I hear some whorish woman say that she knows it is God's will for her to be a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader, or pose in a pornographic magazine, or like the singer Beyonce... claim that she has God's permission to strip and dress sexy in public. it is wickedness!!!
Don't think that you can draw nigh unto God and work at an abortion clinic, drive a beer truck, be a bouncer at a nightclub, be a cocktail waitress, bilk people out of their money, divorce your spouse, be a feminist and lesbian, or lie your way into office as a politician. You are walking with the Devil. You are a friend of the rotten world. Drawing nigh unto God means searching the Scriptures as Jesus commanded in John 5:39. It means praying about everything instead of doubting and worrying all the time as the heathen do (Philippians 4:6-7; 1st Peter 5:7). It means laying up treasures in Heaven where thieves cannot steal, neither doth moth and rust corrupt (Matthew 6:20).
The opposite of walking with God is living to eat, drink, have sex, and party (Matthew 24:37-38). God hates selfish living. If that is you, then your god is your belly. Most believers are choked by the cares, riches, and pleasures of this earthly life (Luke 8:14). They never win a soul to Jesus Christ. Christians who walk with God are soul-winners (Luke 8:15).
