Come Near

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (Jamess 4:7-8, 10, NIV 1984).

My Musings – If we approach God with humility He will draw near to us and lift us up. In so doing, we can “approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16, NIV 1984).

But grace and mercy are only available through faith in Jesus Christ, who “is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34, NIV 1984). This was not always the case, but without realizing it Job words foreshadowed God’s plan. “If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more.” (Job 9:33–34, NIV 1984).

My Advice – Without Christ’s “arbitration“, we will only be able to approach Him with fear and trembling. God will not “lift [us] up” but rather we “will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 8:12, NIV 1984).

This fate is so easy to avoid. For, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Acts 2:21, NIV 1984). If we do, “His terror [will] frighten [us] no more.”