How To Draw Near To God (Part 1)
James 4:7-8
Preached by Pastor Tony Miano
Pico Canyon Community Church
June 24, 2001
Introduction: Having spent the last three weeks studying what conflict looks like, the inevitable question that begs to be asked is, “So, what do we do about it? If God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble, what must we do to establish authentic, biblical humility as part of our character? What must we do to live our lives in such a way so that we won’t find ourselves in opposition to a holy and righteous God?” Okay, so that was four questions.
Even though we touched on some of the things we can do to avoid conflict, specifically conflict with God, James hasn’t yet given us a plan to follow. But he does in verses seven to ten, in chapter four of his letter. Go ahead and turn there if you haven’t already.
In these four very precise verses, James gives us ten-point road map that shows us how to draw near to God. Theologians have attached all kinds of names to this passage of Scripture. It’s been entitled “The Gravity of Grace,” “A Recipe For Humility,” “Exercising For Humility,” and the list goes on. All of the ones I mentioned are accurate depictions of the passage’s message. For me it’s a road map for drawing near to God, and James is the navigator.
Believer and unbeliever alike can read this map. As is the case in other parts of James’ letter that we’ve studied, theologians differ in their opinions about which group James is writing to in particular passages. Is he addressing believers or unbelievers? Although I see the context leaning more toward a conversation with unbelievers, we can’t forget that the letter, as a whole, was written to spiritually young, Jewish converts.
I’m sure many of you are familiar with the oft-quoted verse in Hebrews that talks about the Word of God being a two-edged sword. I wonder why the writer of Hebrews made sure to mention the two edges of the Sword. Could it be that although any given passage or verse of Scripture has but one meaning, it can impact multiple groups of people? I think so. I’ve shared that with you before.
And let’s keep in mind that a general theme throughout James’ letter is that he wants to see the genuineness of his readers’ faith, not hear lip service about how faithful they are. So as we study these four powerful verses in James’ letter—Christian, let its rich truth penetrate your heart. Use the ten points James makes as a spiritual check-up, one that leads to repentance. And if you are here and have never committed your life to Christ, listen carefully to what God’s Word has to say to you today as well. We will see in the words James uses that he is most definitely talking to you, too. With that, let’s see what James would teach us about drawing near to God.
The Tone of the Passage
Now, before we get too far into discussing the various steps James lays out for us in his road map, we need to understand James’ tone in these verses. We have seen James use various tones of voice in his letter. He has been the loving older brother. He has been sarcastic. He has been stern as well.
Here, however, in verses seven to ten, we see a level of intensity in James that we have seen glimmers of in other sections, but nothing that compares to what we have in the four verses we’re going to study over the next couple of weeks. What we have in this passage is not one command, but ten—ten commands fired at his readers in rapid, to the point, “let’s not play games” fashion.
Nothing that James says in this passage is offered in order to facilitate discussion, much less debate, between him and his readers. James issues all of the commands in what’s known in the Greek grammar as the aorist tense, which is much like the past tense of the English language. But James’ use of the aorist tense doesn’t only represent a time frame, but also a level of intensity. In this case, a great deal of intensity.
James is writing with a sense of urgency that is deeper than anything we have seen from him so far. Each and every command carries the same level of intensity. James wrote this passage as if lives depended on it. James had heard of the sin in the church. He had heard that there were those in the church putting themselves off as teachers when they weren’t. And there were those who were simply playing church. Their faith was a fake.
In addition to James’ tone, it’s important that we understand what James is not saying in these verses. James is not saying that if you do the things he commands in verses seven to ten you will be saved. God’s salvation . . . cannot be reduced to a formula. James simply lists elements of what God requires of [people] in response to His sovereign, gracious call” (MacArthur, p. 203-04).
Again, each of the elements James lists in this passage is given as urgent commands, not as suggestions. James is not saying that if God has extended his precious grace to you these are things you should consider doing. The gift of God’s grace demands a human response—not because the response earns us anything, but because the sovereignty of God deserves no less attention or commitment than what James lists in this passage.
In the first phrase of verse seven, we have the word “therefore.” When we study the Bible, words like “therefore” should key us into the fact that what is being said or what is about to be said is directly connected with what has previously been said. In this case, the road map to drawing close to God is directly connected with James’ quote of Proverbs 3:34 in verse six.
We can paraphrase the connection between verse six and verses seven to ten this way. “God’s grace is greater than man’s sinful desires. That’s why Solomon wrote in Proverbs 3:34, ‘God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Consequently, in order to draw near to God the following characteristics must be evident in our lives.”
Stop #1 — Submission
The starting point, the “you are here” location, if you will, or, better yet, “you should be here” location on James’ map to drawing near to God is this: submission. James begins verse seven with these words. “Submit therefore to God.”
It makes perfect sense that James would begin with this command. It strikes directly at the heart of the problem described in verse six—pride. Submission is the opposite of human pride. If you want to draw near to God, it requires your submission to God. This is not a popular message today. Sadly, it seems that this message is becoming less popular, day-by-day, in the modern church.
Today you can hear in more and more churches that the gospel message is one of acceptance. The message is that God accepts you just the way you are. Now, although there is a certain amount of truth in that concept, it is only part of the truth. If God didn’t accept us as we are, being sinners, then no sinner could be saved.
However, God’s acceptance of fallen man is better understood this way. God accepts those whom He has called not simply just as they are, but in spite of whom they are. I don’t even like the word acceptance. I think it cheapens what it is that God’s grace actually does in the life of the sinner. Instead of the word “acceptance” we should use the word “redemption.” By God’s grace, sinners who repent are redeemed.
“The Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms,” a great little book that you will find helpful in expanding your theological vocabulary as well as in your understanding of important theological doctrines, defines “redemption” this way. Redemption is “the process by which sinful humans are ‘brought back’ from the bondage of sin into relationship with God through grace by the ‘payment’ of Jesus’ death” (Grenz, Guretzke, & Nordling, p. 100).
The response that God’s redemption demands is submission to God. You cannot draw near to God if you are unwilling to submit to His sovereign authority in your life. If you call yourself a believer, if you call yourself a Christian, yet the thought of completely submitting to the will of God makes you squirm in your seat because you are uncomfortable with the conversation, or because your offended that anyone would suggest that you let go of what you may consider to be your independence, then you should reconsider just how genuine your faith is.
In Luke 14:26-27 we have one of Jesus Christ’s great teaching on submission. Jesus said, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”
When Jesus calls for His disciples to “hate” all of these other people, he does so by way of comparison to what their love for Him should be. The submission Jesus is describing here is total. Nothing and no one should take precedence over their relationship with their Lord.
I found it interesting that James would use the passive form of the Greek word for “submit.” This means that the submission is voluntary. We can know with certainty that man, because of his sinful nature, is not going to voluntarily submit to God. Romans 3:10-12, a passage that has brought about considerable discussion in our Wednesday night Shepherd Group, says, “As it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.’”
So it seems that we have a bit of a problem here. If James is demanding that his readers voluntarily submit to the Lordship of Christ, yet man is incapable of doing that on his own, how is it possible for people to obey this command? Paul gives us the answer in Romans 8:14-15. “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’”
Those whom God is calling to Himself, those who are truly being led by the Spirit of God, will voluntarily submit to the authority of Jesus Christ in their lives as children of God. They will not be as the slave that must be forced, even mistreated, to submit to their master. Unless a person submits to the authority of Christ in their life, he or she cannot be His disciple. If you truly desire to draw close to God, then you must swallow your pride and not only acknowledge Jesus Christ as your Savior, but you must also submit to Him as the Lord of your life.
Jesus must have complete control. You cannot simply say, “I know who Jesus is. He is the Son of God. He’s the Savior of the world. I pray to Him every night,” and at the same time say, “I’m my own man (or woman). Nothing’s free in this world. Jesus is going to just have to accept me the way I am. When I die, I’m sure Jesus will see that I’ve done more good then bad. I’ll meet God on my terms.”
You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say, “Jesus is my Savior as long as I can live my life the way I want to, as long as God doesn’t get in the way of the things I want to do, the way I want to do them.” Drawing near to God is reserved for those who have submitted to His Lordship in their lives.
Stop #2 — Resistance
The next stop on James’ road map for drawing near to God is seen in the second half of verse seven. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” If you are truly living your life in submission to the sovereign will of God, then your life will also reflect a resistance to everything and anything that is contrary to the will of God. Resistance is the second stop on the road to drawing near to God.
The Greek word translated here as “resist” also means, “to stand against or oppose” (Abbott-Smith, p. 33). We can only submit to God in our day-to-day lives if we are actively engaged in resisting Satan, the enemy of God. Peter wrote of this active engagement against the enemy. “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world” (I Peter 5:8-9).
Paul also spoke of this in his letter to the Ephesians, which we will be studying verse-by-verse when we’re finished with James. Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 6:10-17—a passage I’m sure is familiar to many of you.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”
“Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
We cannot resist the schemes of the evil one on our own. We must put on the full armor of God and do everything we can, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to stand firm in our faith. The armor God’s Word calls us to a level of maturity which includes soaking our mind with the truth of His Word, not the mind-numbing, mind-emptying meditation practices of eastern mysticism that are making inroads into the body of Christ.
It includes living our life under the control of the righteousness of Christ, not the self-righteous assertiveness the world considers being a sign of strong character. It includes a practical readiness, because of our genuine peace with God, for whatever the enemy may throw at us.
The armor of God includes a genuine faith that acts, rather, that is, a shield against every steely barb, even the ones that come at us on fire, that the enemy throws at us. It’s not faith in ourselves. It’s not the simple faith of capitulating to the intellectual facts concerning God’s existence and the existence of His Son. In his commentary on Ephesians 6, Pastor John MacArthur wrote, “Faith is only as reliable and helpful as the trustworthiness of its object; and Christian faith is powerful and effective because the object of faith, Jesus Christ, is infinitely powerful and absolutely dependable. Christian faith never fails, because the One in whom the faith is placed never fails” (MacArthur, p. 358).
Your only hope for resisting the temptations and roadblocks Satan will inevitably throw at you is if the object of your faith, all of your faith, is Jesus Christ. If you place any of your faith in yourself, in your friends, in your family, or even in this church, if there is anything that takes your eyes off Christ in those times when resistance is required, then your faith is unreliable. Biblical, spiritual resistance to evil requires, without exception, genuine faith in Jesus Christ.
The armor of God, which is an impenetrable armor when worn correctly and genuinely, includes what Paul refers to as the “helmet of salvation.” How many of you men here today played organized tackle football in school? Rich, I know you did.
I remember an incident during a practice of my freshman year. It was a tradition at the high school I attended for the freshman players to go through a sort of initiation. The initiation was in the form of a tackling drill—but not just any tackling drill. You see—in this tackling drill a freshman player would lay on his back with a graduating, senior player also laying on his back several yards away. The senior acted as the ball carrier and the freshman was, in theory, suppose to tackle him. When the coach blew the whistle, both players quickly got to their feet and ran toward each other at full steam.
During my freshman year, I was basically the size I am right now. I think the incident I’m describing had much to do with the sudden end to my growth. The player the coaches chose for me to go head-to-head against was a senior by the name of Gary Zimmerman. Gary was a mere 6’4”, 250 pounder his senior year, and he wasn’t done growing. For those of you who follow professional football, Gary went on to be an all-pro offensive lineman for the Minnesota Vikings. I think he finished his career with the Denver Broncos. In high school, Gary was one of those guys who would eat live goldfish for lunch, just because someone asked. And he was my opponent.
As I lay in the cool grass, I looked at the sky and waxed philosophically as I asked myself the question, “What am I doing here?” Then I tried to reassure myself. “This will probably only hurt for a little while. I’ve got a helmet. I don’t think he’s going to kill me.”
The coach blew the whistle. I got up and faced my opponent. Actually, I was looking straight ahead at his chest. The last thing I remember is Gary growling and my body quickly hitting the ground. When I came to, the rest of the team was cheering. I think they were just happy to see that I lived. For several weeks after the incident people were talking about the 5’8” freshman, noseguard that survived a tackling drill with Gary Zimmerman.
Could you imagine what would have happened to me if I had not been wearing a helmet? Would any of you guys that played football ever dream of going into the game without your helmet? Even when going up against larger and older opponents, there was a certain level of assurance because of the protective equipment we wore, particularly the helmet.
The “helmet of salvation” speaks to the security every believer has in the fact that no matter what the enemy throws at you, he can never take away the security the believer has for all eternity, in Christ. One of my favorite passages, one I’ve shared with you a few times, is found in Romans 8. Go ahead and turn there. In fact, last week when Paul and I got together with Rich for lunch, we talked about the assurance of the believer, and I shared these verses with Rich.
Paul wrote, beginning in verse 35, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Just as it is written, ‘FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.’ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (vv. 35-39).
Unless one has the assurance of faith in Christ, they cannot hope to resist the temptation brought about by Satan and the resulting sin.
Finally, Paul mentions the “sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God,” as a component of God’s armament. The important thing to note here is that the Word of God is a spiritual weapon by design. It is not human in origin. Memorizing, meditating, and standing firmly on the promises of God’s Word will make it a sword in our lives—a sword that can cut through the lies and deceit of the enemy and the world he controls, and a sword that can penetrate and root out the sin in our hearts that keep us from drawing near to God.
Those who are not followers of Christ will try everything and anything short of repenting of their sins, obeying the Word of God, and submitting to His authority, in their failed attempts at living the so-called “straight and narrow” life. But without the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, through genuine faith in Jesus Christ, they are waging a pointless, unarmed battle against the devil.
James tells us that the devil will flee from those who resist him. James has written this verse as a “when . . .then” proposition. What that means is that Satan is only going to flee when he is resisted. There are those that teach a half-gospel that states that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Those who teach this way conveniently leave out the other half, which calls for repentance, the other half that says coming to faith in Christ is not a guarantee of a rosy life.
The encouragement James brings to us is the fact that even when the enemy comes at us with both barrels blazing there is always victory in Christ. If you are counted among those to whom God extends His amazing grace, if you have set aside your sinful, human pride and humbled yourself before the Lord, and you resist the lies of Satan, the guarantee is that Satan has no choice but to flee. The Greek word translated as “flee” literally means, “to seek safety in flight.” When you live your life by faith in Christ and in submission to the will of God, Satan has no other choice but to flee to some other place where he is tolerated and safe to practice his evil ways.
Stop #3 — Nearness
The third stop on James’ road map for drawing near to God is simply nearness. And we see this in the first half of verse eight. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” We cannot draw near to God if we have no desire to be in close proximity to Him. The desire of our heart must be to have intimate fellowship with Him, and, for the right reasons.
This idea of drawing near to God was mentioned often in the Old Testament Scriptures. I’m going to share with you a couple of verses out of the Old Testament Books of Isaiah and Ezekiel. Listen carefully and see if you can pick up the context in which the people draw near, or fail to draw near, to God. I’m going to read these verses back-to-back, and then we’ll go back and take a little closer look at each.
I’ll start with Isaiah 29:13. “Then the Lord said, ‘Because this people draw near with their words and honor me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote.”
In a vision regarding the future Temple in Jerusalem, the prophet Ezekiel was given a tour and he wrote these words. “But the chamber which faces toward the north is for the priests who keep charge of the alter. These are the sons of Zadok, who from the sons of Levi come near to the Lord to minister to Him” (Ezekiel 40:46).
Do you see the most intimate circumstance in which the people of God draw near to Him? If you don’t see it yet, maybe this verse in the Book of Hebrews will help. It says, “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
Each of these verses point to a specific activity in which God’s people find themselves in close proximity to Him. It’s worship—genuine worship. In the verse from Isaiah, we see what I consider to be one of the saddest aspects of man’s existence—false worship. Just as Jerusalem turned their back on God in order to hang on to their man-made, man-centered traditions, we see the same things happening in churches today. People are filling churches on Sunday morning under the auspices of worshipping God when, in reality, they are just paying Him lip service. They think they can draw near to God without having a heart for true worship.
As the verse tells us, people remove their hearts far from the Lord as they fall into the ruts of their traditions. They sing the songs on Sunday morning because everyone else in the room is singing. They stand, sit, clap, or kneel before the Lord based solely on the command of the people in front of them, not out of reverence and genuine awe for the God in whose presence they think they want to be. Their reverence has deteriorated to little more than rote memory tradition.
I saw this kind of mindless, heartless worship illustrated in a movie that came out a few years ago. The movie was called While You Were Sleeping. It’s a Christmas season, romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock. Now guys, you can wipe the frown off your face. All of my illustrations can’t be cop stories and war movies. The ladies still outnumber us in our church family.
There’s a scene in the movie that finds the central family of the movie in church together. It was a traditional, Catholic church and it was the part of the service in which the congregation participates in responsive prayer. Those of you from more traditional church backgrounds know the kind of prayer I’m talking about. The priest or pastor will read a predetermined prayer and, at the appropriate times, the congregation answers aloud.
The fact that the movie depicts a Catholic Mass isn’t an indictment on the Catholic Church. It’s a parody of the attitude of some people who go to church. The attitude toward worship of the family in the movie can be seen in churches of various denominations.
The scene opens with the priest praying for those who are sick. The congregation responds by saying, “Lord, hear our prayers.” The congregation takes their seats and the priest continues to pray. But instead of praying, the family begins to talk about Sandra Bullock’s character and the family business. Halfway through a sentence, the head of the family says, “Amen,” with the rest of the congregation and continues his conversation without missing a beat. Then the eccentric grandmother in the family chimes in with, “I like Mass better in Latin. It’s nicer when you don’t know what they’re saying.”
The family banter continues through the rest of the scene. The members of the family knew exactly what to pray and when to pray it because they had probably been reciting the same prayer for years. They could do it in their sleep. They could do it in the midst of a conversation. The totality of their reverence for God rested on their ability to recite heartless prayers from rote memory. They weren’t worshipping the Lord. Sadly, as so many people in churches around the world this morning are doing, they were simply going through the motions.
Something else that keeps people from engaging in a genuine nearness to God is the fact that the navigation of their worship is all fouled up. The direction their worship travels is not what it should be. In the verse I read to you out of Ezekiel, the prophet said that the sons of Zadok came near to the Lord to minister to Him. If you truly want to draw near to God, if you want to have that nearness, that close proximity that comes during intimate worship, then the direction and focus of your worship must be on Him and Him alone.
That’s why Eric and I are so committed to making sure that the worship here at Pico Canyon is Theo-centric. That means that God is at the center of our worship. Every song we sing must be sung to Him, not to ourselves.
I’ve led worship now, in various churches, for over ten years. And I have heard things like this in every one of those churches, even here. “You know—I didn’t really get anything out of worship today.” Or, “The Lord didn’t speak to me today in worship.” Or, “Did you hear how out of tune the guitar was today. And the harmonies—they really messed up on the second verse of the fourth song.”
I’ve had people come up to me over the years and share complaints like this with me. My response is often this. “The reason you didn’t enjoy worship today is because you came to be served instead of to serve. You came to get instead of to give. Worship isn’t about you. It’s about God. What matters is not what you get out of it, but what you put into it.”
The Levite priests came before the Lord to minister to Him—not because God needed anything, but because He is worthy of everything. Throughout the Scriptures we see worship described as a sacrifice, not a sing-a-long. The reason is simple.
When believers are involved in genuine worship, they come before God’s throne of grace, not to seek a warm fuzzy, but mercy and grace. The verse I read out of the Book of Hebrews says that we can come before the throne of God’s grace with confidence, not with arrogance. An arrogant worship would be that in which we assume that God has to give us something in return for giving Him our time in worship. It will do us all well to remember the words of the apostle Paul, which he wrote to the Romans.
Paul wrote, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:33-36).
Worship flows in one direction—from the children of God to their heavenly Father. To think otherwise will hinder any attempt to draw near to Him. Now, you may be thinking, “Wait a minute, Tony. Are you saying that we shouldn’t get anything out of worship?” No. What I’m saying is that receiving something should not be our motivation for drawing near to God through worship.
In fact, look at what James writes immediately after he gives the command to draw near to God. He writes, “ . . . and He will draw near to you.” Just as in verse seven when James wrote about resisting the devil, we have the same construction here in verse eight. What James is saying is that when you draw near to God, then He will draw near to you.
If you are wondering what you should get out of worship, if you are wondering what it is you should take away from being in the Lord’s presence; it is this. The greatest benefit you will ever derive from intimate fellowship with the Lord is the simple, yet sometimes overlooked fact that, by the grace and mercy of God, you were allowed to be in His presence.
Now, it’s very important to understand that James is not talking about drawing near to God as it refers to salvation. He is talking about drawing near to God as it refers to fellowship. We know from what we read in Romans 3 and what the apostle John writes in chapter six of his gospel, “No one can come to Me [Jesus] unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44a), that God is the one and only initiator of the salvation process—not man. At the same time, it’s only those whom God has drawn to Himself and saved that can, in turn, draw close to God in intimate and reverent fellowship.
A sign of genuine faith in Christ is seen in the heart of the person who has a genuine longing to be in close proximity to their heavenly Father. We’re told this time and time again in the Scriptures. For instance, in Psalm 27:7-8 we read, “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.’”
In Psalm 63:1-5 we read, “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise You. So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.”
And, one last verse, Psalm 84:2 says, “My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.” In these verses you hear words like “seek,” “longing,” and “yearn.” The unbeliever cannot do these things of their own volition. They can only do these things if the Spirit of God is drawing them. And we find these words—“seek,” “longing,” and “yearn”—in the Psalms, a magnificent book of songs—songs of praise, worship, adoration, confession, and supplication—written to God by believers, not unbelievers who think they were seeking God.
If our hearts desire is to draw near to God then we must do as God’s Word commands. We must first submit to Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives. We must stand firm in our faith and resist the lies of Satan. When we do Satan has no choice but to flee. And when he does, we will be able to draw nearer to God. We also must come before the Lord, in the genuineness of our faith, and worship Him with our whole hearts. During those times of worship, we must be focused on giving Him the praise, and honor, and glory He so richly deserves—not on receiving things we don’t deserve.
When we draw near to God with a heart and mind that places Him exclusively at the very center of our attention, His Word promises us something extraordinary—not a warm fuzzy, not a higher opinion about ourselves, not a hundred-fold blessing, but that He will draw near to us. What more could we ever want?
