Dear brothers and sisters,

Loving greetings in Jesus name.  How to come near to God?  This has been a great concern in my heart in these days to come closer to God.  According to the James 4:8 to 11:

1. Come near to God and he will come near to you. – [When we come closer to God He will also come closer to us. So, let us think what all the way we can come closer to Him in our daily life. When we think about it and take real efforts to come closer then God will also do the same to us.  In another words we have to take the first initiative to come closer to the lord.]
2. Wash your hands, you sinners, - [The bible says sin separate us from the Lord as in Isa 59:2, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”  So we have to cleanse ourselves to come closer to God.  Especially the bible says our hands are not clean as in Isa 59:3, “For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things.”  So let us clean our hands with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.] 
3. And purify your hearts, you double-minded. – [another valid reason why we could not come closer to God is that we have double mind many times so we are not able to have a good clean heart.  So the bible says that we have to clean our hearts from all these unsteady double mindedness.]
4. James 4:9 Grieve, - [To come closer to God we must grieve for the wrong deeds we have done on this earth.]
5. Mourn – [we must also mourn before God and feel sorry for our sinfulness.]
6. And wail. – [we can wail and ask God to cleanse us from all sins.]
7. Change your laughter to mourning - [when we really want to repent we must be serious in our attitude.  Without feeling really sorry for our sinful life if we ask God to cleanse us it may not be right.]
8. And change your joy to gloom. – [we have to keep distance from all the thinks which may be a Joy to us so that we can really concentrate before God and sit and pray.]
9. James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, - [when we humble ourselves before God we will be lifted up by our God.  God is against those who are prove and the same way give His grace to those who humble themselves before God.]
10. And he will lift you up.  – [This is the only way to be lifted up by the lord Jesus Christ.  so to come closer to God let us humble ourselves and be lifted up by the lord.]
11. James 4:11 Brothers, do not slander one another.  [If we really want to come closer to God we must keep this command very carefully.  We should not slander one another on this earth.]
12. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.  – [if we have to come closer to God we should keep His commandments.  But we cannot keep the commandment of God as long us we speak against our brothers or Judge them.  So let us stop talking about all our brothers now itself and instead of judging their actions let us judge ourselves so that the word of God can be followed in our lives. 

May the lord help each one of us to come closer to God day by day and know the Lord Jesus Christ very closely.  Amen.

With love and prayers,

Yours in the kingdom of God’s service,
Rev. Dr. T. Marcus Devasahayam.