Avoiding spiritual collapse
Avoiding spiritual collapse
You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:4-6 NLT
God is the source of all the good things in life. “Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father” (James 1:17). It will be contrary to His nature if He feeds our insatiable desires that will drive us away from Him. This is why James is telling Christians to wake up and not allow themselves to be preoccupied with worldly pleasures for this will lead to spiritual collapse. Once you go back pursuing the old life that God had freed you from when He saved you from the bondage of sin, “you make yourself an enemy of God.” These are strong words from God for He wants us not to take for granted the redemption that was paid at the cross. He is our creator and our redeemer and as such our lives belong to him. “For your Creator will be your husband; the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is his name! He is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth” (Isaiah 54:5). Yearning after the pleasures of the world violates our commitment when we confessed that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. It is easy to be overcome by such desires and the only way we can overcome is to realize that we have God as our friend and not the world. No matter what life throws at us and the difficulties this creates for us make us attracted to the world, let us be reminded that God’s grace is available for us so we will not give in to despair. “He gives grace to the needy” (Proverbs 3:34 NASB). God does not want us to squander the resources He provides for us so that we can live godly lives. “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence (2 Peter 1:3). Some of us might be in the same situation as the first readers of the Book of James. The light that God gave us might be flickering because we have been deeply enticed by the pleasures of the world. God wants us to be empowered once again by His grace by returning to Him, our first love. “I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the deeds you did at first” (Revelation 2:4-5 NASB).
Blessings,
