Humility, the Pathway to Grace--Day 326 Through the Bible

                                                       Icicles on the Blue Ridge Parkway

We begin today in Ezekiel 37, and "the valley of dry bones".  God explains this mystery in verses 11-14.  "Then He said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.  They indeed say, 'Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!'.  Therefore prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God: "Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves.  I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it, says the Lord." God will fulfill all His promises and every prophecy--whether in this life or in the resurrection.

In James 4, God pinpoints the source of contention as evil desires that war within us, leading to selfish aggression. Rather than embracing the hallmark of worldliness which is pride, we are reminded that humility is the pathway to grace (v. 6).  James then lays out a plan for dealing with selfish desires before God and trusting Him to provide what we need:
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
Purify your hearts, you double minded
Lament, 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).

He makes it clear that friendship with the world results in a self-seeking attitude and makes us the enemy of God.  Pride and arrogance are part of worldliness and deceive us into forgetting about God and proceeding with our own plans. James writes that, "whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.  For what is your life?  It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that'.  But now you boast in your arrogance.  All such boasting is evil.  Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin" (v. 14-17).