To Encourage You

James 4:8 “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”

Do you believe the promises of God?  The Bible is filled with them – but do you know what they are?  And of those you may know, that you may have read or otherwise heard about, do you actually believe them?  Do you view them as nice thoughts and general platitudes but nothing more – or do you see them as the ironclad promises of a God Who cannot lie and Who absolutely means everything He says in His Word to us? 

You see, the Bible tells us that “without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).  Do you hear that?  If you don’t believe what God has said you can’t possibly please Him.  That’s all faith is at its heart, i.e., it is believing God’s Word, the actual things He has said in it. We won’t ever do this if we don’t first believe that He exists, and secondly, that He is a Being Who acts, Who most certainly rewards anyone who sincerely seeks Him. 

That’s the wonderful promise of the verse above.  If we draw near to Him, if we actually seek to know Him, if we desire that with all our heart, He, the God of the universe, will draw close to us personally.  The promise isn’t impersonal. It’s not just a nice saying. It’s a promise to you and me that if we, personally, draw near to God, He will draw near to us, personally.

I heard this explained in something I read from the great British preacher, Charles Spurgeon, today.  It was the metaphor of a hen who clucks softly to her chicks. She wants to gather them to herself, so she lets them know with her call.  Then, as they respond and run towards her, she likewise, at the same time, moves towards them. It’s a mutual thing, and as we apply this metaphor to our God, it’s such a wonderful thing.  Jesus painted exactly this same picture with these words: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing (Matthew 23:37)!”  Jesus absolutely meant these words when He said them, and by preserving these words for us to read also, He absolutely means them for us. 

But do you believe this?  Do you believe that you can have an intimate, personal, living relationship with this Almighty God? Do you want this? Do you think about it?  If not, you should,  for it comes from the very Truth incarnate.  It’s a sure thing for those who believe it. 

But if we actually do believe it, then we will act like we do.  We will continually make an effort to draw near to Him. We will do this by the means He has given us, i.e., by worship, prayer, reading His Word, believing it, and then obeying what it says.  There’s no other way.  These are the only means.  If these things don’t characterize our lives, no matter how close we think we are to God, no matter how much we think He is pleased with us, we are fooling ourselves and we are farther from Him than we have any idea.

The Pharisees were like this. They had such a high opinion of themselves. They viewed themselves as very close to God, much closer than all the other people they looked down on, like the Gentiles and worse yet, the Samaritans.  They viewed God as their Father, yet when the One Whom Isaiah called “the mighty God, the everlasting Father” (Isaiah 9:6) stood right in front of them, they didn’t know it.  Then when Jesus pointed this fact out to them, they killed Him.  They heard His words with their own ears, but they didn’t believe them.  They had their own ideas about themselves and no matter what the Son of God said to them, they chose to believe themselves rather than believe Him.

So what about you and what about me? What do we believe? What belief system are we operating under?  If it’s anything other than the words of God given to us in the Scriptures, we’re falling far short of the wonders of drawing near to God that we could experience if we actually believed Him.  May God help us to believe what He has said with all our heart, for the truth of the matter is, all of life is a struggle regarding this. We are so prone to believe only what we can see, to trust only ourselves, and to doubt what the unseen God has told us.  May God help us to recognize this and to have the humble heart of the one who knew to come to Jesus for his son’s healing with these words: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24), for it is unbelief that is the only real hindrance to any of us truly drawing near to the God who is eagerly waiting to draw near to us.