But He Gives More Grace...

As I read through the first several verses of James 4, I confess, I began to feel a little uneasy...especially when I reached verse 3. 

Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

For a minute or two I felt bombarded by my sin, my lack of prayer and mental lists of what I was or was not doing.  I started down  “Should” Road”.  The road that constantly questions what “I should” be doing and what I “should”not be doing or worse, what I am doing, but not doing correctly.  But then there was...

Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?—James 4:5

This verse was a balm to my anxious heart this morning.  I am so grateful that the Spirit of God who dwells in me, yearns jealously for me to have a single minded devotion to God.  The Spirit of Truth is on my side and He desires for me only that which is good.  My heart’s cry is the same...I want to please God with everything that is in me...I want His will and His will alone in my life. And if that is my desire, the Spirit of God will get me there, despite me. 

But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:

“God resists the proud,

But gives grace to the humble.”

This same Spirit who yearns jealously for me and convicts my heart when I am not faithful, is the same Spirit to whom I can cry out to for grace to help in my time of need in order that I can serve Him acceptably.   I can humbly draw near to the One who gives more grace and submit to Him with full assurance that His will for me is perfect.  He has my best interests at heart.  As I pray, He will align my will with His.  He will make His desires my desires. I am weak, but He is strong. I CAN rest and allow His Holy Spirit to do that good work in my heart as I seek Him.  

But I have trusted in Your mercy;

My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.

I will sing to the LORD,

Because He has dealt bountifully with me.—Psalm 13:5-6

Those Who Seek the LORD Understand All....

Evil men do not understand justice,

But those who seek the LORD understand all.—Proverbs 28:5

The difference between a evil man and one who seeks the LORD is literally night and day.   An evil man walks in the darkness and futility of his mind... his understanding, Ephesians 4 tells us, has been darkened and alienated from God because of the ignorance that is in him and the blindness of his heart.  The more he sins (and he cannot not sin) the darker his mind becomes.  Therefore, he cannot understand judgment, discern right from wrong or the truth from a lie.  God is not in his thoughts and he is ruled by his own lusts.  

For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.—John 3:20

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!—Matthew 6:22-23

A man of understanding seeks God and the more he seeks God the greater his understanding.  A man of understanding knows how much he needs God.  He understands his condition...he KNOWS he is wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.  God’s word rules his heart and his life. God’s glory is his goal and His favor is his joy.  A man of understanding has the mind of Christ. 

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;

A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.

His praise endures forever.—Psalm 111:10

 "If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.—John 7:17

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.  These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holyfn Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.  But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?”fn But we have the mind of Christ.—1 Corinthians 2:12-16