He Gives Grace to the Humble: Fresh Insights from James 4

 

This morning a well known verse hit my heart in a fresh way. You know those moments with the Lord when everything just clicks and you understand a core truth He has been working out in you for a season? 

This morning I found myself flipping to James 4. Let me be honest by saying this is a passage I have flipped to often in the past two to three years, and sometimes to my own frustration. I would feel convicted, yet frustrated at times as I worked through the passage, knowing I was the one quarrelling and bitter because of the desires that waged war in my soul yet pridefully and stubbornly not wanting to grasp the solution to such a predicament (verse 1-2). 

You see, James 4 describes our human nature and how we lust after things... How we grumble and complain because we want something/someone other than God. We don't receive such things because we aren't going to God and asking. And often times when we ask it is with wrong motives... just so we can be satisfied apart from Him (verse 3-5). That's a fleshly desire He is never going to fulfill. 

But that is not my only problem... wanting things apart from God. My problem is I want my heart to be pure apart from Him. I want to keep the desires under control on my own terms. I want to perform and perfect my righteousness so that God is pleased with me. 

But that isn't the gospel. And that certainly is not the truth of James 4. I can't fix my predicament. On my own I am a hopeless, lusting quarreler, far from God and His heart. 

What does James say we should do when these pleasures and desires are ruling our hearts in a way that leaves the Holy Spirit jealous (verse 5)? 

We should know in those moments that God gives a greater grace (verse 6). He gives more grace in those moments so that we can learn to desire Him above our own comfort and wants. He gives more grace so that we can rest in Him and wait upon Him to meet all of our needs in His own time and way. 

                    He gives more grace so we can truly submit to His provision and care and not seek to meet                     our needs in a way that gives into Satan and his schemes (verse 7). 

Why does God give such grace? To whom does He give it? He gives it to those who are humble enough to recognize such a condition in their own soul. For He opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (verse 6). 

Man, what a truth. The point is to submit and recognize we need His grace to walk through life with pure, worshipful hearts. To realize we cannot perform or be righteous apart from Him. We cannot form and perfect our own little worlds and hearts. 

We must instead come humbly, recognizing all the ways we lust after things and distort desires, and trust Him to make us desire Him first and then meet all of those longings in His time and way. 

Friend, you cannot live apart from Him. It's only in confessing your weakness and brokenness, your inability to properly thirst after Him, that He can make you pure and whole and godly. 

What do we do with this truth? James tells us: 

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

He surely will. 

Also, this instrumental version of He Will Hold Me Fast has been an encouragement.

Nothing in My Hands I Bring

 

I can do nothing apart from Jesus. 

Go ahead and read that again, dear friend. 

It is the refrain in my mind this morning as I sit in a study room and process some reading for class as well as just current life circumstances. The Lord is continuing to draw out areas of my heart that I seek to control and keep from Him. Things I want to control, ways I want to perform. All so that I feel secure and safe. 

But I can do nothing apart from Jesus. 

That is what we are told in John 15 when Jesus instructs His followers to abide in Him. We abide because He is our source, our very life. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. 

Can I get painfully honest for a moment? 

I try to create my own vine. I go to my own sources and strength in order to try to build a life that is safe and secure and pleasing to the Lord. I try to earn His favor and do things the right way. I strive for perfect obedience (all in my own strength) in order to feel good and strong. 

But that is so not the gospel. 

And it is the complete opposite of what we are called to in John 15. 

Jesus calls us to rest in His all-sufficiency. Nothing in our hands can we bring. No efforts of righteousness. No deeds or strivings in our own strength. Just cling to Him, the true Vine. 

Now let's pause for a moment and be clear– this clinging will result in righteousness and good deeds. It will lead to loving our brothers and sisters out of true godly, self-sacrificial love and servitude. But may we so importantly remember it will be utterly fueled and strengthened by Jesus alone. Not any efforts of our own. We just can't. And it is idolatrous to think we can in our own strength. 

Okay, rewind. Back to only clinging to the vine. 

You know what happens when you cling to something? 

You can't hold on to anything else. 

To cling to the Vine means we must let go of anything else we are clinging to. We must forsake those things we look to for security and strength apart from Jesus. 

That's hard. But also so so good. 

            What are you clinging to today apart from the all-sufficient, loving presence of Christ? 

Your job? Your family? Your location? Your identity in your schoolwork? Friends? Physical possessions? 

We are called to a life of abiding, a life of clinging to Christ. And our hands can only truly cling to one thing. We just don't have room to fit anything else in our small, finite hands. 

May we choose Christ. May He faithfully and lovingly strip our hands of any and all that keeps us from truly resting in Him as our source of life and righteousness. 

For Him to do otherwise would actually be the most unloving thing– keeping us from true abundance and freedom that is found in Him alone. 

May we be people that truly sing "Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling."

Grace Abounds All the More

Lately, I find myself going back to Genesis 3 every now and again during my devotional time. It is a well-known passage by many of us. It is sobering. Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord and humanity is deeply changed by their actions. Sin enters the world along with death and grief and distance from the Lord. It isn't a pretty scene... yet it is. 

Let me explain. 

In Genesis 3, Satan tempts Eve and Adam and is successful in prompting them to choose sin over trust and fear in the Lord. Consequences come when God approaches the couple, asking where they are and why they are hiding (Gen. 3:8-11). They begin blameshifting and stuttering about. They are embarrassed and shameful... and more than anything... guilty. They know they have messed up. They sense their nakedness before Him (Gen. 3:11). 

They deserve death. They deserve to be utterly punished right then and there. But that is not what the Lord gives them. 

Instead, He first addresses the serpent, cursing him and declaring his ultimate death by the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:14-15). Seed of the woman... wait a moment that can only come about if Eve is alive and not dead... her punishment isn't death for her sin? The Lord is going to allow her and Adam to continue living and multiplying despite their disobedience? Yes. Yes, He will because in this chapter of Scripture, we see sin and judgment, but we also see the first "installment" so to speak of another thing– grace. 

God doesn't annihilate Adam and Eve. He does give consequences. The sin is judged and punished. But there is another theme here of God's mercy and grace in that they still live and God pronounces ultimate judgment on the serpent and his ultimate death, declaring his imminent defeat that will come through Eve. 

Sin has entered the picture. It will now be present in the whole story of Scripture. But God's grace will also be present and even more so. 

The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5:20-21

God's grace is always deeper and greater than our sin. It is just a matter of whether or not we receive and stand in that grace through faith in Jesus or we reject it and suffer the consequences of eternity separated from God. 

So here is my main point and the reason I often come back to this passage and maybe even surprisingly find deep comfort in a passage that many typically find sobering and depressing...

We live in a world that rests upon God's grace. 

We live in the midst of an unfolding of salvation that literally stands upon God's graciousness. 

We live in a sinful world. We battle sin in ourselves. We mess up. We don't trust the Lord as we should. We become conflicted about decisions and choices and wonder how to best please the Lord. We get caught in our heads thinking we must perform perfectly for the Lord or else our lives will be destroyed. 

We often don't understand grace. Or rest in it.

Yet for my heart specifically, those are the moments that God nudges me to flip back to Genesis 3 and I find comfort there instead of only sorrow over the reality of Adam and Eve's disobedience. Instead, He reminds me of the context I am living in– a world marked by sinful natures and the fall and conflicting desires and pressures– yet reminds me that it is His grace that still upholds all things as it did there in the garden that day when He didn't grant Adam and Eve what they deserved. 

And I am reminded His grace really does uphold the world, not my perfection. 

This by no measure means I feel the freedom to or want to walk in disobedience to the Lord. Far be it from me, Lord (Rom. 6:1-2)! 

But rather, on the days when I get overwhelmed and am so fearful of messing up and displeasing my Lord (and further am actually acting out of pride in thinking I can be perfect apart from Jesus and His grace), I am reminded to simply come rest at His feet and be in awe of the grace that He has already extended to me and that He has given me to stand in all of my days here on a sin-wrecked earth in a sin-wrecked body (Rom. 5:1-2). 

He will continue to pour out His grace when I misunderstand or disobey. 

Because He has been doing it from the beginning. 

And one day the ultimate realization of Satan's head crushing will be realized (Gen. 3:15). 

Praise the Lord His grace abounds... as it has from the beginning of time. 

January 2023 // Semester 4 // A Deeper Wisdom

 

We all want the easy. The predictable. The understandable. The expected. 

We long for and expect our expectations to be met. 

We love our own way. 

It is the beginning of another year, another semester, and also the beginning of another depth in my relationship with the Lord (it seems). 

This webpage knows that seminary has not been what I expected, but three semesters in and with the grace that comes with time before the Lord I can say it has been sweeter. 

The pain of pruning before the Lord does yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness. I keep seeing it in more depth as I just keep walking through this season... and the Lord is kind to at times give me glimpses of the beauty He is working out within me as I cry out to Him in times of doubt. 

The Lord has been settling His truth in my heart the last day or so... reminding me of His faithfulness and bringing His Word back to mind. 

I am seeing where He has grown me in confidence before Him in so many new ways... learning to trust His sovereignty and care as new pressures and lessons come into play. 

I find my mind going back to the book of Job... how he wrestled with feeling misunderstood, alone, confused, and doubtful. His expectations were crushed and his world seemed to fall apart for no reason. Things weren't supposed to work out that way, he thought. He couldn't pinpoint any sin or disobedience that would result in such consequences. He was in anguish. Things aren't supposed to be this way... Lord, where are You? Where did You go? What happened? 

I didn't ask for this... 

I also think of Psalm 37... a psalm that commands us to wait upon the Lord, to delight in Him, and to trust His faithful care. Even when it seems like the wicked are winning, like the way of the world would bring more answers and delight than following and waiting upon Jesus... even then we are called to trust that the Lord will not forsake His godly ones. 

Sometimes we are put in a place where all we can do is just trust and wait. 

A had a dear friend share with me my second semester here (almost exactly a year ago) as she watched the Lord begin to shatter my black and white boxes... stripping me of my expectations and comforts... that though He took them away now, she believed that He would give them back– but better– in the future. I can't help but think of that comment now as I begin a new year and the Lord continues to settle my heart before Him... sometimes the pruning has to take place, but in time the Lord does bring back the fruit... but so much better. 

Our expectations are not bad oftentimes. Our dreams are not sinful. The things that make up our lives can truly be according to God's design and goodness. For Job we don't see anything contrary to that... yet even so the Lord stripped him bare in order to build a deeper trust in the Lord's sovereignty. Yet after the lesson... after the lament... after the surrender of recognizing that no matter what, the Lord was the Lord and Job had no business complaining against Him or instructing Him in how to act... the Lord gave back to Job the gifts... the expectations... the hopes... but twofold (Job 42). 

Yet at that point, that was not Job's primary concern. It wasn't about living a comfortable, expectation-filled life. It was about dependence on the Lord (Job 42:2). And because a dependence and trust in the Lord had been grown in Job's heart through the trials He faced, I'm sure the gifts of family and livestock and so forth were that much more sweeter. 

Because ultimately the gift isn't the thing or things... it isn't life going our way... but rather the gift is the growth in knowing more and more that the Lord keeps His godly ones and delights in their way (Psalm 37:23). It is the promise that the waves and waters will not overwhelm or the fire will not cause me to be scorched (Isaiah 43:1-2). It is knowing that His way is often through the sea and sometimes His footprints are not known or clear to us (Psalm 77:19). 

Yet even so He is good. 

And that is it. That is enough. That is the sweetest gift. It is the deeper wisdom He desires to sow in us. 

Knowing His goodness and faithfulness in greater depths– because all true wisdom is rooted in His character, not in our understanding or expectations. 

Abba, keep growing in me the peaceful fruit of righteousness... no matter the discipline or scourging it takes (Hebrews 12).