HUMBLY BROKEN

HUMBLY BROKEN

James 4:7-10 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Draw close to God, and he will draw close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, you hypocrites. Let there be tears for the wrong things you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. When you bow down before the Lord and admit your dependence on him, he will lift you up and give you honor. NLT

     One of the reasons why so many prayers fail is that we fail to approach God in an acceptable way. We must first come before Him in humility of heart. We must recognize our need and helplessness. We must understand that we are not able to overpower Satan without God's help. We must admit our defeat in the face of evil without God's help.

      As we approach God, we must do so with a contrite heart. We must admit our sinfulness and our need for His cleansing. We cannot make ourselves pure. We are utterly helpless when it comes to pleasing God on our own.

      We must approach God broken. We must have deep within us a sorrow for the things we have done. We must understand the foolishness of our ways and have a sincere desire to change. We must be shaken to the core because of our sinfulness. A broken heart is a grieving heart.

     When was the last time that you approached God broken because of sin in your life? Be honest with yourself. Have you recognized sin in your life lately? Have you let the Lord examine your heart? When was the last time you asked yourself if what you are doing or thinking about is sin? When was the last time you judged sin by God's standards rather than your own?

      The promise is that when we approach God the right way, He will reach down and lift us up. He honors those who are humbled before Him. He blesses those who have pure hearts.

      Our problem with Satan usually is our pride.  We think we can resist him on our own.  We think that we don't have to have pure hearts before God in order to be victorious. 

       Or, we somehow get the idea that it’s not that big of a deal in the first place, that we don’t have to resist Satan in order to be okay with God.  We end up simply not trying and not concerning ourselves about sin.  Such thinking lands a person in hell.

       Is your heart right with God today?