Draw Near To God

James 4:8 contains a really cool promise. "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." As a worship leader it seems as though all the material that I read lately is related to worship. It also seems as though all the worship leaders think that this passage has to do with worship. Isn't it a cool thought that when we draw near to God in worship for example on Sunday morning, that God is drawing near to us? After all, the Psalmist declares that God inhabits the praise of His people. It just makes sense that if we draw near to God in worship, He will draw near to us.
Unfortunately, Sunday morning worship is not what James is talking about in this passage. Rather, the context refers oddly enough to sin. Specifically, the Christians response to this world and all it contains. Let me hit a few of the highlights of the passage up to the point of verse 8. "What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?... You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures... do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?... Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: 'He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us'?... Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded."
The language that James uses here is reminiscent of the language used by the prophets of the Old Testament who warned Israel of God's wrath over their sin. God called the Israelites adultresses, because they abandoned God, their 'husband', and followed after the idols of the foreigners around them. Christians are called 'aliens and strangers' in this world; yet we do exactly what the Jews did in the Old Testament. We make ourselves comfortable in our culture and begin adopting lifestyles, beliefs, and behaviors of the world around us. James warns that such 'friendship with the world' makes us enemies of God. Paul talks about those who are not children of God being children of wrath, which means that the wrath of God is directed at them for their sin and rejection of Jesus Christ. As a child of God, why would I want to cozy up to a world that is being prepared to receive the full force of God's wrath? If you saw someone walking in the middle of the road while a bus was barreling down on them, would you walk in the middle of the road with them?
This is basically what many Christians do. We want to be comfortable while we are here on earth, so we desire things that we do not have and pray for possessions to fulfill our desires. For the majority of Christianity, living is about life and what you can get out of it. Just like the world, most Christians in America believe they must get what they can out of this one life. "The one who dies with the most toys wins!" LIE "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?" TRUTH.
Christians place themselves in the path of God's wrath against this world when they decide that this world is the most important thing to them. If my goal in life is to be comfortable, successful, and wealthy, then I am allying myself with the losing team, the world, the flesh, and the devil. However, if I recognize that this life is mine to glorify God and use everything I possess for that purpose, then I am drawing near to God. The result of which is that He will draw near to me. This should bring proper perspective to the Christian life.

"Only one life, will soon be passed; only what's done for Christ will last!"