God’s Word refers to the Christian life as our “walk”. Our walk would include all that we do. The thing with this is that as we “walk” we are either getting closer to God or farther away from Him. All that we do is going to result in one or the other.
James 4:8a Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
We find a great truth here in James in that if we do something to draw closer to God, then God will draw closer to us. So, if I take time to talk (pray) to God, that is a way to take a step closer to Him. If I do so, according to the truth of this verse, God will then take a step closer to me. Then if I were to read His Word to allow Him to talk to me, again I am taking another step towards Him and He will draw even closer to me. If I share the gospel with someone, if I serve in some ministry in the church, if I attend church, all these are steps that I can take to draw closer to God; knowing that He will do His part as promised in drawing nigh to me as well. Ultimately my personal relationship with Him will become more and more intimate.
But along with that, are those things that we do that do NOT draw us closer to Him. They don’t even have to be “bad” things; they simply are not actions that draw us any closer to Him. Obviously sin will not, but even other normal activities such as watching a baseball game for example simply are not steps taken in God’s direction.
We need to assure that we are taking more steps in His direction or otherwise we will find ourselves farther away from Him. And, as we see in this verse, God is waiting for us to take the first step so that He can then take a step closer to us as well.
