"Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded." James 4:8 (KJV)
If you have ever gone swimming in the ocean, you know how drifting works. You leave your towel on the sand and wade out. You never decide to go anywhere. But when you look up, the towel is far down the beach. Nobody moved it. The current carried you, a little at a time.
Most of us drift from God the same way. Few people decide to walk away. A prayer gets skipped, and then a week of them. The Bible stays closed. A small compromise gets explained away. Then one day God seems far off, and we are not sure how it happened.
James wrote to believers in that condition. They were church people trying to be friends with God and friends with the world at the same time. He does not soften the diagnosis. But before he gives a single command, he says this: "He giveth more grace" (James 4:6). Then he shows the way back.
Come under. "Submit yourselves therefore to God" (v. 7). The drift began with wanting our own way, so the return begins by settling who is in charge.
Come near. "Draw nigh to God" (v. 8). In daily life, that means opening His Word because we want to hear from Him, and then doing what it says. It means a changed mind toward sin: clean hands in what we do, and an undivided heart in what we want. And it means asking one question before we speak, spend, or decide: will this please Him?
Come low. "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord" (v. 10). We stop excusing what God calls sin. We call it what He calls it, and we leave the lifting to Him.
The promise in the middle is the heart of the passage: "He will draw nigh to you." Remember the father in Luke 15. His son was still a great way off when the father saw him, had compassion, and ran.
That is the God James is describing. He is not waiting with folded arms for you to prove yourself. Turn toward Him, and you will find Him already coming.
## One Step Today
If there is distance between you and God today, He did not put it there. And the way back is not complicated.
You likely already know your step. It may be an area where you have been negotiating with God. It may be a Bible that has been closed too long, or a sin you have been calling small. Whatever He has shown you, take that one step toward Him today.
## Prayer
Lord, I have drifted further than I meant to. I submit to You again today. Cleanse my hands, and unite my heart to fear Your name. Give me a love for Your Word and a desire to please You above everything else. Thank You that You give more grace, and that You draw near to those who draw near to You. In Jesus' name, amen.
