“Submit yourselves, then, to God….Come near to God and he will come near to you.” James 4:7
Do we have any greater promise in the Bible—God draws near to those who desire him? He is not perched on the top of the success charts or locked away in the vaults of puritans. You don’t have to negotiate with mobs or put on your best dress to kiss God’s cheek. He dines with the broken toothed pilgrims who crave His company, and he comes to have dinner with those who set a table for him.
Then what separates us from God? Jesus said, “the kingdom of heaven is near.” What keeps us out of the kingdom? Anyone who knocks on his door will find it already open; God’s table is set, and the Father is waiting for your company. He has already chosen you. Then what keeps us away from him?
What we find in this verse standing between you and the Father is YOUR WILL. He has chosen you, but have you chosen Him? You have as much of God as you have made room for, but you have to surrender to his will, which is difficult since our will—ambitions, desires, and choices—is magnetized towards the self; it is drawn to personal gain. It does not understand or commune with Selfless Love and the sacrifices required to know Selfless Love. There is no coherence. James tells us bluntly to “submit.”
The secret to intimacy with God is magnetizing your will to the Father’s will instead of self. The Father’s nearness is on the other side of our surrender. You can have personal independence, or the Father’s nearness, but you can’t have both. Jesus tells us in John 14:21 “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
The other week my wife brought new and needy friends over whom we were not expecting. I was thoroughly exhausted from the day and was desiring to relax and spend the evening in the quiet of my house. But here was an invasion of noisy and rowdy children. It reminded me of the circus. While the moms worked on ‘stuff’ in the next room I begrudgingly played the role of the elephant carrying the children around in circles on my back. Of course I was careful to keep the smile on my face, but in my heart I was counting down the minutes until they were gone.
In the midst of my sour attitude the Holy Spirit illuminated my duplicity. I felt him say, “Just yesterday you prayed and said that you wanted to make a difference in the world. Well, here’s your chance.” The nearness of God’s goodness flows from laying your life down—not when it’s convenient or when you feel gratified or appreciated for your gift. It comes by submitting to the Father’s order, and not your own order. There are quiet opportunities in hundreds of different moments of your day to discover the Father’s wisdom, compassion or joy when you would have leaned on your own anxiety, self-sufficiency, or self-importance.
It was only after I repented and asked for the Father’s compassion that I found the profound joy to love this beautiful family. I grieved (in my spirit) over the brokenness they were walking through, and their need for love and affection. An evening that began with a self-centered attitude turned into an encounter with God. God came near to us; I could sense his presence. But I first had to surrender.
Humility is your greatest virtue, to recognize that the things most dear to you—your own hobbies and solutions and personal interests—are absolute poverty without Him, and absolute treasures in him. Your experience of God’s good presence is only discovered on the other side of surrender. It takes a sacrifice of something important to you, but I want to encourage you—his nearness is worth the price!
Tags: communion, repentance, obedience, surrender, intimacy, yielding
