08 November 2005 Devotion for Today “He Giveth More Grace” James 4:4-6
An elderly lady was driving through a rural part of
A couple of miles down the road, the lady stopped at a diner for a bite to eat. The young girl who waited on her was obviously very pregnant, but even though she had been on her feet all day, she still kept a smile on her face and a pleasant attitude. When the elderly lady left, she placed a rather large tip on the table – there were 4 crisp $100 bills underneath her napkin. On the napkin she had written, “Pass this kindness along to someone else.” The waitress could hardly wait to get home to her husband that night. He had been out of work for a couple of months now, and they had been praying about how they were going to meet their medical bills. Now they had their answer. She couldn’t wait to tell him. By the way, her husband’s name was Sam.
The point made in this heartwarming story is that God already knows our needs and our desires, and He has already planned just the right way for those desires to be fulfilled. All that we have to do is come to Him, place our complete dependence in Him, and then wait for Him to do what He has already said that He will do. Sadly, the proud man doesn’t have access to this kind of support because he isn’t willing to look to anybody but himself for the provision of his needs and desires. The only proper way for us to deal with out desires is to come to God and ask Him to meet them.
4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? 6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “ God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble (James 4:4-6)
I have to say, I don’t like the tone James starts off with in this chapter. Most of us know the bitter result of pride left to itself. It usually ends very badly. However, many people feel that they should not ask anything of others lest they think badly of them for not being able to provide for themselves. These are the ones who often have needs unmet because they cannot bring themselves to ask anyone for help, or that they have no one around who notices the need that they have- other than God, of course. I am thinking of someone right now who needed to go into the hospital for surgery, but she did not want to tell anyone because she felt that there were others who needed the ministry of the church more than she did. Yet when anyone in the church or the community gets sick, this one is always the first to send a card, show up with a meal, whatever it might be she is there ministering to others. Perhaps that is as it ought to be, yet it give others so much joy to minister to a person like this-even if we have to hunt them out. I told this dear person “don’t ever think you can ever expend the resources of the grace of God, just because you are afraid of putting people out.”
You may not agree with this assertion, but I interpret this passage to mean that God gives more grace to those who feel they are undeserving or unworthy of it. There is nothing wrong with asking for this kind of grace.
Go ahead and ask God for this grace. Don’t let your pride fool you into thinking you are not going to get it because you have asked for it in the past. God delights in giving it.
Have a blessed day!
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