Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
James 4:7-10
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Sometimes we miss the urgency with which the Holy Spirit calls us to remove sin and the world from our lives. We miss this urgency especially often when we are not spending time in the Word.
This is because the world around us will never call us to reject sin or its ways. It will do just the opposite!
The voices and direction of this world will seek to subtly convince us it is not worth rejecting. That we are wrong to fight against it. That everyone, even those within the church, are accepting the ways of the world and living just like it. Or that the voices of our youth were wrong to call us into strict holiness to the ways of God.
But the more we listen to the Holy Spirit and humbly return to Him, the more we can see His call to holiness and separation from the ways of the world, the pursuits of the world, and the trappings of this world.
As just one example, here is the living that the Holy Spirit calls us to in the book of James.
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”
“Submit yourselves to God.”
“Resist the devil.”
Notice that resist is an active word. We battle against, fight against. We resist both actively and daily. Just as a woman would fight off the advances of a would-be attacker, we do the same against the devil.
“Wash your hands, you sinner, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
Again, this is an active verb. When was the last time we actively washed our hands of sin, rather than just turning a blind eye toward it? When was the last time we took an active posture to cleanse it from our own life, rather than just trusting it over to grace?
And then he says this:
“Grieve, mourn, and wail, Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.”
How easy it becomes to accept the fleeting pleasure of the world! How easy it is to partake in its offerings, its entertainment, its lifestyle, its ways—and believe we have found joyful happiness there.
But we are not to rationalize sin in our lives or enjoy it in any fashion, we are to reject it entirely and turn to God instead.
The world will never call us to reject its ways. It will subtly call us to accept, partake, and enjoy. But the Holy Spirit calls us to war against it and to resist the devil, both actively and daily, so we may find true life in God and be lifted up in His kingdom.
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Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for redeeming us and calling us into a new life separated from the sin of this world. I submit myself to you and your will. Give me passion and urgency to live a righteous life, purified for you and your Kingdom. Amen.