Today’s reading from the Bible, James 4v7-10: Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands and purify your hearts, you double-minded sinners. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.  New International Version – UK

A comment for today: James’ letter emphasizes the importance of repentance and humility. It encourages believers to submit to God and resist the devil. It tells us that James believes that if we humble ourselves before God, we will receive God’s grace and be lifted up. 

In the world today, much old style wisdom has been lost from our general consciousness and understanding: Repentance of sin is considered old fashioned and irrelevant. Humility is thought to be for the passive and weak. The idea of submitting ourselves to God is completely misunderstood. And resisting the devil is thought to be superstitious nonsense.

Taking time to ponder: Read and reread the Bible passage and the comments and then ask yourself whether the old style wisdom is something that you struggle with too. If you do not struggles - give thanks to God; but if you do struggle - ask God to help you understand why this old style wisdom is important today. Then close with the prayer that follows.

Closing Prayer: Dear God, help us to submit ourselves to You. Help us to grieve, mourn, and wail over all of our sins. Then take the burden of them from us, through Jesus. Cleanse our hands and purify our hearts and help us to resist the devil’s temptations to sin. Draw us closer to you so we hear your voice. Help us to humble ourselves before You, so You can lift us up. Amen