Clean AND Fill

This morning I felt led to turn to James 4, and to spend some time reflecting on the following verses - James 4:4-10 NIV:

[4] "You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. [5] Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us ? [6] But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

[7] "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. [8] Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. [9] Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. [10] Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."

As I am looking at these verses this morning, it is as if James lays out a 4-step process:

1) Submit to God.
2) Resist the devil
3) Come near to God
4) Wash and purify yourself of your sin and double-mindedness.

It is a four step process that we should follow to completion!  Don't stop at steps 1, 2 or 3, but continue all the way to step 4.  This reminds me of the spiritual principle Jesus described in one of His teachings.  It is found in both Matthew and Luke, but I will use the version found in Matthew 12:43-45 NIV:

[43] “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. [44] Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. [45] Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

The idea is that it is not enough to cast out the nastiness and clean one's life, one must then fill one's life with good things, Godly pursuits.  In the verses above, the evil spirit returns and finds the house unoccupied.  The story would have a completely different ending if it came back and found the house occupied and defended.  We must learn to submit to God, resist and cast out the devil and impure spirits and THEN draw near to God, and finally cleanse our minds and hearts completely.

The question is how to cleanse our minds and hearts? In the letter the Hebrews, the author speaks of the cleansing power of the Blood of Jesus, as follows - Hebrews 9:14 NIV:  "How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!"   Paul writes of how the church is cleansed through the washing of the word in the following verses in his letter to the Ephesians 5:25-27 NIV: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her [26] to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, [27] and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."

Thus, cleansing has to do with the Blood of Jesus, and the forgiveness He purchased for us, and with the Word.   We must not just resist the devil, we must confess our sins and be cleansed with forgiveness.  We must then fill our lives with the Word, meditating on it, and filling our lives with it.  We must learn to fill our houses with God, so that if the nastiness that has been previously driven out tries to come back, it will find our lives occupied and defended by God!

This all seems pretty straight-forward, and logical, and yet, I often think submitting and resisting is good enough.  I find that in life, I often don't finish what I started, and that laziness affects me spiritually as well.  I need to press on and draw near to God, and fill my life up with His works and His Word.  I need to choose to pursue, choose to draw near, choose to fill-up, choose to read, choose to confess.  I see a pattern here, and it has to do with choosing and then acting on that choice.  Good intentions are not enough, I must choose AND act.  In doing so, I fill up that which is cleansed and defend that which has been made clean.

Lord help me to follow through to completion what is in my heart to do.  Help me to fill my house up with You!

Amen!