The Power of Momentum

James 4:6-10 NKJV
But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Some people don’t really think through this verse but let’s picture of a huge truck trying to get up a hill, even more picture yourself trying to push the truck up this treacherous hill. Now picture yourself at the top of the hill and you push the truck down the hill. Gravity takes on the role of momentum. This is what God’s grace does for us. He increases us. I’d much rather be humble and let God push me down the hill rather than allow pride to make me labor so hard to push against the hill. Momentum makes us look better than we really are. Without it well it makes us look worse. This is God’s grace is for us. His grace makes us look better than we really are. Momentums has the Latin root word moment. So basically momentum is movement caused in a moment. This is what grace does for us! God can change your situation in a moment! When you have been striving for years God can bring movement to your life in a moment! With enough momentum any change is possible!

v. 7 – Submission and Resistance
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Submission – you give up your thing for God’s thing. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be submission.

Resistance – unlike us, the devil doesn’t grow stronger through resistance. See, we grow through resistance and adversity if we don’t quit. But the devil becomes weaker and weaker every time we resist. But it’s not just a mean ole’ devil we’re at war with. It’s our flesh and selfish desires that crop up in our mind, will, and emotions. This where we truly see resistance in play. This is where the fruit of the Spirit of self-control comes into play. This is why it’s so important to feed ourselves the right things. What you feed wins. What you nurture wins.

v. 8 – Drawing Near & Repentance
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Sometimes we think God moved away from us but in reality maybe we did. There will be these times in life when everything just seems dry and lifeless…. just blah. Or those times we just feel like we have completely blown it. LISTEN! Those are the times we press in the most. Drawing near to God is as easy as asking for forgiveness. We can draw near to God through personal worship. We can draw near to God through reading the bible. We can draw near to God through a time of fasting. Drawing near to God isn’t hard. We make it hard because of the shame of our past. BUT you must understand… God’s love for you is about acceptance. When we draw near, He will be right there waiting.

v. 10 – Humble Yourself in the Right Sight
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Humbling ourselves in God’s sight means humbling ourself in the sight of others. If we are humbling ourself just to be seen as humble, then we aren’t. Often humility comes through humiliation. I’ve found that my greatest seasons of experiencing God’s grace came through the most painfully humbling experiences I had to go through. I believe humility is a reminder that we are the created and He is the Creator.

“Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.” -Andrew Murray

When we humble ourselves we allow the full nature and plan of God to move in and through our lives.

[divider style=”1″ align=”center” size=”normal” variant=”normal” dimension=”1px” color=”” scrolltext=””][/divider]

Please leave your thoughts if you feel led and let’s continue the conversation! May God bless you!