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DRAWING CLOSER TO GOD

THE DAILY FOUNTAIN DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE OF THE CHURCH OF NIGERIA (ANGLICAN COMMUNION)

DATE: FRIDAY, 16TH JUNE, 2023 

TOPIC: DRAWING CLOSER TO GOD

TEXT: JAMES 4:1-17

1. Where do wars and fights [come] from among you? Do [they] not [come] from your [desires for] pleasure that war in your members?
2. You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
3. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend [it] on your pleasures.
4. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5.  Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously"?
6.  But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."
7.  Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse [your] hands, [you] sinners; and purify [your] hearts, [you] double-minded.
9.  Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and [your] joy to gloom.
10.  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
11.  Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
12.  There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?
13.  Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit";
14.  whereas you do not know what [will happen] tomorrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
15.  Instead you [ought] to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that."
16.  But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17.  Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do [it,] to him it is sin.

MESSAGE: 
In today's passage, James warns against pride (vs. 8-10), criticism and arrogant self-confidence (vs. 7-13). James' primary reason for writing was to bring Christians closer to God. He illustrates the pitfalls and blessings for Christians who desire to develop a closer walk with God. James advises that we submit ourselves to God while resisting the devil too. He also mentions lust, adultery, murder, slander and pride. All of these hinder us from drawing closer to God. God resists such behaviour and blesses those who are humble and draw near to Him.
Dear children of God, let us take heed to our daily living. Just as there were conflicts in the days of James, so it is today,9l maybe even more. Humility is a conscious decision to remain under God's tutelage, knowing full well that everything that pertains to life comes from Him alone. Let us therefore remain humble under God and He will lift us up indue time.

PRAYER:  
Lord Jesus, I submit myself under Your Lordship, draw me closer to You day by day. Amen

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