James on Life Step 4: Jump Off the Fence and Wash Up
READ IT ALOUD: Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded (James 4:8b).
PONDER IT PRAYERFULLY: “Yes, I am engaged to an unbeliever,” Jane says, “but God knows my heart.”
Jane is right. What she does not understand, however, is the gravity of that statement.
The things of the world are so tempting to the flesh. No wonder it is so difficult to let go of them. Many Christians believe the Lord’s Word and want to stand firm. They have convinced themselves that they love Jesus, but they don’t think Jesus would be “mean” or “sadistic” enough to expect them to let go of that friend, that habit, that thing. But loving Jesus means obeying His commandments. Loving Jesus means forsaking all that is familiar and setting out in Him to a land that He will show us. A person who is caught between the world and Jesus is double-minded, sitting on the fence, in a lukewarm stance, awaiting what God has promised to those who are lukewarm – to be vomited out of His mouth, because they make Him sick (Revelation 3).
Purity and holiness are important to God. The priests in the Old Testament risked death if they did not follow God’s instructions for purification to the letter. In Exodus 30 we see the Lord instructing the priests to wash their hands and their feet before going near the altar to minister or to burn offerings made by fire, “that they die not.” (Exodus 30:17-21.)
What do I put my hands to? What do I spend my time doing? It is possible to temporarily have clean hands even with a filthy heart. The term “clean hands” refers to our work. The Pharisees of old were described by Jesus as being whitewashed tombs which were attractive externally, but internally had dead mens bones and rotten things (Matt 23:27). The outward part of the tomb is what we can call the “hands” – the part of our work that men see. The Lord, however, looks at the heart. However, it is absolutely impossible to have a clean heart and bloody hands.
It is also impossible to have clean hands and a dirty heart for too long, because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, and a tree is known by its fruit.
When we pray, we must have clean hearts and clean hands. God says in Isaiah that sacrifices are pointless if the heart behind them is filthy. Prayers said when a person’s hands are full of blood will not be heard (Isaiah 1:15). It is only when we have pure hearts that God will hear our prayers and very importantly as well, that we will hear God.
When we acknowledge the true nature of our hearts, we will see that we are powerless to cleanse them. That is why as David realized the anger that He had caused God in his sin with Bathsheba, he did not try to do anything in his own strength. He went before the Lord in prayer and said, “Create in me a clean heart. Renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10.)
BE A DOER (JAMES 1:22): Good done out of a rotten heart is pointless. Anything done without love is noise and nothing (1 Cor 13:2). God does not ask us to do things He has not provided strength for. He says “Cleanse your hands! Purify your hearts!” But He does not expect us to do it in our own strength. He is our strength and provider – He does it for us. I cannot purify my heart in my own strength. My righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Instead, I can do what David did, and pray to God to create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me.
HIDE IT IN YOUR HEART (PSALM 119:11): And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord GOD. The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. (Ezekiel 11:19-21; Job 17:9).
PRAY IT PERSONALLY: Father in heaven, search me, and know my ways. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me. Lead me in the everlasting way. Create a clean heart in me. Purify me in all my being. Renew a right spirit in me and let me walk in Your ways always. I ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Check out these similar posts:
Recent Comments