James 4:7-8

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.


Man, here's one that I'm constantly clinging to. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. One of satan's favorite lies is to tell us that we can't resist temptation. Especially when we're in the middle of being tempted he likes to shout that we have no option but to give in. This verse says that's a flat lie. Ask God to give you the strength to avoid a temptation, and when you do get tempted, cry out to him. Then rebuke the devil in Jesus' name, and he'll have no option but to run away!
It goes on to say in verse 8 that when we draw near to God, he'll draw near to us. Wow. I imagine that as we're going to give God a hug, unsure of his reaction, and then he sweeps us up in the biggest hug ever. That's how amazing it is to me that he'll draw near to us. But that also comes with a command to wash our hands and purify our hearts. Haha, when I first read it I was like "Hey! That's not unconditional!" but then I thought about it: whenever our hearts are cloudy and we're doing evil, we're going to see evil wherever we look. Even if we try to look to God, we won't be able to see much of him through the fog over our eyes. But if we clean that up (something we can only do under his power - ha, we're so human..) and truly desire and make an effort to purify our hearts (so freaking hard to do, but so worth it) then that fog will burn away and we'll see him and be able to draw near (thus we're able to have him draw near to us).

So the main theme for today is purity. Keep in mind that while we're still human so we all still mess up, but strive for that. Whether it's sexually, physically (drugs), or even just emotionally (giving your heart away to anyone or anything, or being filled with contempt and malice towards others), the very first step is to give it over to Christ. He crucified that with him on the cross. Don't give in to lies. It's possible for you to overcome. I promise. :)

(for a great song that really shows the internal struggle with sin, listen to "Indwelling Sin" by Lecrae: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lb260iIpTs)