August 20, 2025

James 4:7-12  (HCSB)
7 Therefore, submit to God. But resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded people! 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Your laughter must change to mourning and your joy to sorrow. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.
11 Don’t criticize one another, brothers. He who criticizes a brother or judges his brother criticizes the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

Jonathan Finch
James isn’t sugarcoating anything in these verses. He’s saying flat out: Stop trying to do this life thing your way. Submit to God. Resist the devil. Quit the games. Get serious. But let’s be honest, sometimes we try to do both. A little bit of Jesus, a little bit of “me first.” We say we trust God, but we still want control. We want peace, but we won’t let go of the grudge. We want breakthrough, but we keep stepping back into the very stuff we said we were walking away from.  James makes it simple: Draw near to God, and He’ll draw near to you.You don’t have to clean up perfectly first, just draw near to God. But that takes humility. It means getting low. Dropping the pride. Owning our mess instead of judging someone else’s. James has a word for that, too. He says don’t slander each other. Don’t play God. You’re not the Judge. You’re not the standard. You’re just as much in need of grace as the person you’re mad at. The greatest victories in my personal life have never come from me lifting a finger, but from coming to my knees. Here’s the challenge: Get low. Stay low. Let God do the lifting. Humility isn’t weakness, it’s where strength begins. Because when you stop fighting for your own position, that’s when God steps in and moves things you couldn’t.
Prayer: God, I’m tired of trying to run things. I’m laying it all down —my pride, my opinions, my need to be right. I want to get low so You can lift me up. Keep my heart soft and my words kind. Help me be someone who draws near, not drifts away. Amen