who He is, & who we are

James 4

7 So humble yourselves before God.

Resist the devil,

and he will flee from you.

8 Come close to God,

and God will come close to you.

Wash your hands, you sinners;

purify your hearts,

for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

9 Let there be tears for what you have done.

Let there be sorrow and deep grief.

Let there be sadness instead of laughter,

and gloom instead of joy.

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord,

and he will lift you up in honor.

Sometimes I wonder we are overly familiar with God.

We live in such a state of grace that we sometimes forget who it is we're hooked up with.

I get the feeling sometimes while listening to someone talk about God,

or if I actually listen to my own words & thoughts,

that we kinda have kinda identified God as some kind of celestial grandfather,

all warm & fuzzy.

Perhaps it would be prudent if we remember:

we're connected to Someone who is so blindingly & eternally holy,

were it not for Jesus,

if we came close to Him, we would disintegrate.

Perhaps we should we are called daughters & sons by Someone who is so powerful

that He basically snapped His & the entirety of all creation,

galaxies, universes, & all contained therein,

came into being.

We are intimately connected to Someone who knows everything,

that He sees the beginning of time,

the end of time,

& everything in between.

He sees the total picture, all at once,

because He operates outside the time continuum.

Therefore it is easy to see why James mandates us to “humble ourselves before God.”

We're not messing around with Someone who is our equal.

Whereas James does tell us that if we

“Come close to God, and God will come close to you.”

at the same time in verse 9 James uses words like:

“tears”,

“sorrow”,

“deep grief”,

& “gloom”

These words are used in conjunction with the sins we have committed.

At the same time, James basically tells us in verse 10

if we realize who & what it is we are sinning against,

& are really, REALLY sorry for all that,

that God will “lift us up”.

iow, He'll restore us into the a relationship of equanimity.

In short - whereas, through Jesus, we are accepted as daughters & sons of this all-everything God,

let's not forget Who He is,

& who we are & all we've sinned against Him.