8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
James 4:8
I can remember hearing that verse as a teen and wondering what that really meant. I asked others what it really meant, and they told me it was spending time in my Bible and in prayer. That is a very valid answer, but over time I found that it didn’t give me the detail I needed. There was more to everyday life than reading my Bible and praying. It was years later that I began to really understand that drawing near was about developing a relationship with God, just as I did with others. What made it hit home was the day I was thinking on this passage and a memory came up that put things in perspective. It was an embarrassing memory, but I’ll share it in hopes of it helping you as it did me.
What the “Friend Zone” Taught Me About Drawing Near
Back in high school on a Sunday night after church, a good friend of mine and his girlfriend decided to go out for pizza. On the way we stopped to pick up a girl who I really liked to go with us. We had a good time at the pizza place and on the way home I got up the nerve to put my arm around her. Boy, was it awkward when she didn’t lean in to my arm being around her. She had no intention of reciprocating my drawing near to her. That was an awkward ride home – uncomfortable for her, and uncomfortable for me. I did catch on quickly enough to remove my arm and keep it to myself for the rest of the ride.
To this day I see how that event has served to teach me the significance of when you draw near to someone and they draw near to you. I’ve been on both sides of the response, and the reciprocated version is MUCH more desirable. The wonderful thing is that God sincerely desires to draw near to us. When we put our arm around Him to get closer he doesn’t sit straight and maintain His distance. He doesn’t look straight ahead and try to avoid eye contact, or advise us that we will only ever be in His “friend zone”. He leans in, looks into our eyes and lets us know that we are special to Him.
When you desire a relationship with someone that is special to you, you learn about them, what they like, what they dislike, etc. The best way to draw closer to God is to spend time with Him. That is why you spend time in the Bible, reading and studying to learn who He is and how He goes about things. It is also found in taking the time to talk to God in prayer and then listening for what He may speak to your heart. The goal is to grow into a close relationship with Jesus to the point that how we think and how we act reflect who He is.
What Drawing Near Does For Us
In 1 Peter 5 the Apostle Peter spoke of this process, as he shared:
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
Peter exhorts us to humble ourselves under God. Allow Him to be the authority in how we perceive and act on things. Is this to enslave us? No, for he goes on to tell us that this humbling of ourselves puts us in a position to be exalted by God in due time. Why would He exalt us in due time? “Because He cares for you.” God wants us to humble ourselves and submit ourselves to His Word and His ways because He cares for us. He wants to exalt us, to raise us up higher than where we are. His thoughts for us are of peace, not of evil, to give us a future and a hope. (Jer. 29:11)
He cares for us so much that He entreats us to cast our cares on Him. That grace that is given to the humble says,
“I’m right here with you in this. You are not going to fail and be destitute. Cast that anxiety on me, those thoughts of losing everything, of not being able to go on. Place those fears of being alone on me, because you’re not alone – I’m right here with you and I’m not moving.”
“Draw closer to me, so that I can get right next to you. That burden you’re carrying is really weighing you down, but next to me you can roll it over onto me and let me carry it for you. I’ll carry that weight while you resist those thoughts and you follow what My Word says you should do in this situation.”
In Proverbs 18:10 we are reminded that the name of The Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and are saved. His name is a strong tower. My name is a pup tent. So is yours. Only through the eyes of pride do we see it differently. A humble person runs into the safety of the tower, understanding its value as a defense. The prideful person stands outside his shack convinced it will fool his adversary, but he is only fooling himself. His shack is quickly razed and he is left beaten with no place to go, except to humble himself and go to the fortress and ask for refuge.
A wonderful thing is that even when we are beaten and disheveled from our own pride, the ruler of the tower mercifully opens his tower to us when we come to Him for refuge. Several times in my life I have dragged myself up to that tower’s door, battered and bruised by trying to handle life by myself. When I reached out to knock on that door and call the name of The Lord, that tower was opened to me to give me refuge, tend my wounds, and restore me. Over time I came to realize that life was much easier and enjoyable if I humbled myself and didn’t try to handle all it threw at me in my own strength. Life still was throwing its share of issues my way, but I was able to handle what came in a way that didn’t leave me battered and bruised almost beyond repair. I had drawn near to God, and was learning to allow Him to carry my cares.
Drawing near fosters that relationship where we go to God as the source of our lives. When we regard Him as such, we honor him. It’s who He wants to be in your life and in mine. If you’re facing life with God at arm’s length, draw near. There’s no better place than in His embrace.
If you know someone this will be an encouragement to, please pass it along. It’s my hope that what I share can be a help to others.
