Jump to content
JesusWalk Bible Study Forum

Q23. Humbling Ourselves


Recommended Posts

Q3. (4:6-10)

Verses 7-10 contain 10 different commands. Why are these actions so vital?

These actions are so vital because they helps us to please God and for us, to have abundant life in the Lord.

In what way do they go against our nature?

Our nature tends to be proud,selfish,and delights in merriness but the commandments call us to turn to the opposite ways that pleases God for a purpose.

Which of these commands is most difficult for you?

Submission and humility are the most difficult commands and please pray for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Replies 76
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Q3. (4:6-10) Verses 7-10 contain 10 different commands. Why are these actions so vital? In what way do they go against our nature? Which of these commands is most difficult for you?

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you doubleminded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. [/size][/col

These actions - submit, resist really instruct us on putting ourselves in a good, safe, teachable space. Then we can move closer to the Father- knowing that He knows us helps us to face the truth and respond to how we feel about what we have done. To recognize our sins and seek purification and a clean heart. True realisation brings repentance and in this we become humble and the Lord lifts us up. This process is repeated over and over as we go through the purificaiton of life. It keeps us in constant need and desire of the Lord.

all seems foreign to our nature because we really don't like to feel dependant. I think, for me the hardest is to believe that I can be forgiven and loved over and over and over again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...

Q3. (4:6-10) Verses 7-10 contain 10 different commands. Why are these actions so vital? In what way do they go against our nature? Which of these commands is most difficult for you?

James 4:6-10- But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you

8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up

Answer;

1Verses 7-10 contain 10 different commands. Why are these actions so vital?

The actions are vital to those that

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

These are all part of becoming the image of Jesus Christ. These things are what we must do with the grace of God to conform into His Son's image, to be like Jesus. These things are what pleases God because He is all that matters. True repentance is of utmost importance because this is the first step that will enable God to work with our repentant heart. These go against our nature because our nature is geared to sin, anything that is in opposition to God. To me the most difficult one is to resist the devil. That is because I always think that I am fighting against my own nature only while I forget the scripture that says our struggles are not against flesh and blood but against Satan. Eph. 6:12

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

They all require self examination, humility, and repentance which are difficult for us because they go against our natural pride. All are difficult at times. I’m thankful that God gives me grace so that I don’t wallow in guilt over the past but can always strive toward being more Christlike as I submit to His Spirit and He gives me strength. I am particularly thankful that the commands come with promises. (vss 7,8,10)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

These actions are so vital so that we can humble ourselves before the Lord. We need to be getting all that sin out of us. They go against our nature because our sins feel so good to us. If something feels good we don’t want to get rid of it.

I think that the commands that most difficult for me is the one that ways “10Humble yourselves before the Lord”. When I have thrown out all the sins that I have but I have saved one, it is very hard to humble myself before the Lord.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

(4:6-10) Verses 7-10 contain 10 different commands. Why are

these actions so vital? In what way do they go against our nature?

Which of these commands is most difficult for you?

All of these commands exemplify a life of humility before God, therefore to be a friend of God, to live in His Spirit and to experience greater grace we must not be proud, but humble ourselves before Him.

My nature is to be proud. My nature is to try to do it myself and in my way. These commands force me to face the sin of pride in my life and humble myself in the presence of the Lord.

I kind of think that if I accomplish the first one, "submit therefore to God," that the others would fall into place. I would count that as the toughest one to obey. Sometimes I want to run ahead of God and other times I drag my feet on moving in the direction He is moving me, and sometimes I don't have the discernment to know which is which.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Q3. (4:6-10) Verses 7-10 contain 10 different commands. Why are these actions so vital?

God want us to be pure and holy as He is

In what way do they go against our nature?

We are born sinners and sin is our root.

Which of these commands is most difficult for you?

Purify my heart / or mind, you people who can’t make up your mind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

Q3. (4:6-10) Verses 7-10 contain 10 different commands. Why are these actions so vital?

 

They're vital because to live a victorious Christian life and to receive the crown at Judgement Day we must submerge our own desires and submit to God's will for our lives. While we're stubbornly clinging to our worldly ways and satisfying our worldly desires we won't experience full joy in Christ. We relegate Jesus to the bench while we play our own game.

 

 

 

In what way do they go against our nature?

 

We as human beings want to feel in control of our own destiny. While we cling to that mindset we don't allow God to work in our hearts because our hearts are set on worldly things.

 

 

 

Which of these commands is most difficult for you?

 

The second one. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Far too often I simply give in to temptation. Then I'm wracked with guilt over letting God down.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All of the commands are part of submission to God and his will and we fight and fight to remain in control. When we do this we separate ourselves from God and his great love. We can never heard this enough...

I find it such a great challenge to purify my heart. Thoughts creep in that are far from loving and are self serving.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Q3. (4:6-10) Verses 7-10 contain 10 different commands. Why are these actions so vital? In what way do they go against our nature? Which of these commands is most difficult for you?

 

These actions are vital because they draw a person close to God.  These actions remove any walls between a person and God. 

 

Humbling ourselves before God; resisting the devil; coming close to God; washing our hands of sin; purifying our hearts; mourning and grieving over sin are not something people naturally do.  The satanic world system encourages personal independence and self-indulgence as well as ignoring God.  Submitting our wills to anyone let alone God is the hardest thing for human-beings to do.  We are wild and lawless creatures.

 

The most difficult command for me is submitting my will to God in all situations.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Q3. (4:6-10) Verses 7-10 contain 10 different commands. Why are these actions so vital? In what way do they go against our nature? Which of these commands is most difficult for you? 

 

 

These actions are vital because they draw a person close to God.  These actions remove any walls between a person and God. 

 

Humbling ourselves before God; resisting the devil; coming close to God; washing our hands of sin; purifying our hearts; mourning and grieving over sin are not something people naturally do.  The satanic world system encourages personal independence and self-indulgence as well as ignoring God.  Submitting our wills to anyone let alone God is the hardest thing for human-beings to do.  We are wild and lawless creatures.

 

Resisting would probably be the most difficult for me, especially being a teenager comes with a lot of temptation.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Q3. (4:6-10) Verses 7-10 contain 10 different commands. Why are these actions so vital? In what way do they go against our nature? Which of these commands is most difficult for you?

The ten commands James gives us in 4:6-10 are vital actions to us because as Christians we are to love one another as Christ loves us. We are not to let the fleshly desires stand between us and the Lord.

These commands that are given to us by James go against our human nature because the devil knows our weakness and knows this weakness will keep us away from the Lord and our desires will go contrary to Gods will.

The command that is the hardest for me to submit to is resisting the devil. I have learned to resist him in many ways, but still he always comes along with something new for the flesh. There is power in the name of Jesus and pray he will continue to sanctify me by lifting me up to resist all the things that are contrary to God.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

7Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.10 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.9 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.8 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

These verses give us instructions in repentance:

 Submit yourselves to God

 Resist the devil

Come near to God

Wash your hands 

Purify your hearts

Grieve

Mourn

 Wail

Change your joy to gloom
Humble yourselves

We need to realize our sin. Not until we can view our sins, can we humble ourselves. Humbling or denying ourselves leads to repentance. Submit to God and become obedient, the conflict ends and you are at peace. Resist the devil and his temptations to be able to continue in your walk to be near God. It is our nature to be selfish but if we humble ourselves, grace, love, peace, etc. will be ours. I find it most difficult to resist the devil.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...
  • Pastor Ralph changed the title to Q23. Humbling Ourselves
  • 1 month later...

I have not found ten commands, but only eight, so I failed even before answering the question!

Here's my problem. I do not know what I'm supposed to do and what God is supposed to do in me. Also, I do not know when I'm to passively submit and pray and when I'm to actively come up with a plan to rid myself of a certain sinful tendency. After reading James, I'm more confused. 

So, I have a "bad" thought, which is usually, in my case, raw anger, who caused it, and who fixes it? 

First problem: Is my anger mine, that is, self-generated, or is it of Satan? Am I responsible for being angry? I never know when to resist Satan. It always feels like my problem ... my sin ... my mind ... my anger. My inability to know what comes from Satan and what comes from myself has caused me to assume that everything I think that's sinful is self-generated, that is, from my own tendencies and mental habits. I don't "resist the devil" because, well, it's not him but me. It's my sin. My problem.

Second, since I don't know if the sin is of me or not, I can't figure out how to deal with it.

Do I "wash my hands," "purify my heart" and "resist?" If so, this would mean I have control over it, that it's from me not Satan, and something I should willfully deal with.

Do I "submit" and "grieve?" This implies that the sin is relational, not personal. It also implies that the "cure " for my sin comes from God, not from some inner strength or resolve resisting implies. I'm not to deal with the sin, but "come near to God" so He can deal with it for me.

I'm more confused than helped by this passage. 

By the way, what does James mean by "Change your laughter into mourning and your joy into gloom."  Note the strong verb, "CHANGE."

James is saying, "You do it." 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Q3. These commands are vital because they keep us close to God and when our eyes are fixed on Him we are less likely to be distracted by ungodly things. These actions are contrary to our human nature because we want to be in control of our own lives and want to do what we want to do! I am inclined to think badly of my brothers and sisters at times if they do something differently to the way I would do it, and I tend to overlook my own ways which may be offensive to others. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Q23. (4:6-10) 
Verses 7-10 contain 10 different commands. Why are these actions so vital? 
In what way do they go against our nature? 
Which of these commands is most difficult for you?
These actions are vital, in that when they are followed, they show true repentance. We read earlier how wicked the old nature of ours was before becoming believers.
We are to reject this wicked nature and get nearer to God. We repent and humble ourselves; we confess our sins, with a true deep sorrow for all these sins; we submit ourselves to God, by obeying Him. We should humble ourselves before God and seek His forgiveness for our sinfulness and over our worldliness. God wants us to come to Him in true repentance, faith, obedience, and prayer; He will then fill us with His grace and crown us with His blessings. When we pray “Your will be done,” we have dismissed pride, are submissive to God, and are obeying His commands. I suppose, the most one I battle with is pride. But then again being a sinner, I must have in my lifetime battled against all/most these commands, and have been disobedient in all/most of them at some stage. These commands are a test of our saving faith. But fortunately, through the grace of our Lord, we grow spiritually, and we become more and more obedient to these commands. 
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Q23. (James 4:6-10) Verses 7-10 contain 10 different commands. Why are these actions so vital? In what way do they go against our nature? Which of these commands is most difficult for you?

These actions are so vital because it is necessary for us to submit to them if we want to mature in Christ.

Because submitting is not in our nature to do naturally.

The most difficult to me is probably being judgmental 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Q23. (James 4:6-10) Verses 7-10 contain 10 different commands. Why are these actions so vital? They are the conditions that we must meet so that God can lift us up and our prayers for His promises may be manifest. In what way do they go against our nature? They go against our nature in that they want us to submit to God and resist the devil whereas our spirits are designed for **** and envy. Which of these commands is most difficult for you? Resisting the bloody devil from invading my thoughts.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/17/2004 at 10:03 PM, Pastor Ralph said:

Q23. (James 4:6-10) Verses 7-10 contain 10 different commands. Why are these actions so vital? In what way do they go against our nature? Which of these commands is most difficult for you?

These actions are so vital because they glorify God and His Sovereignty is manifested in one's life, we ought to be like God  in what we do. they go against our nature because we love when things go our way, none. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Q23. (James 4:6-10) Verses 7-10 contain 10 different commands. Why are these actions so vital? In what way do they go against our nature? Which of these commands is most difficult for you?

These series of commands (about ten) include submitting ourselves to God, resisting the devil etc. are so vital to ensure that we have and maintain a good relation with God and with man.

I think the ones that I consider difficult are those in v9 asking me to grieve, mourn and wail and to change my laughter to mourning and my joy to gloom.
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

(James 4:6-10) Verses 7-10 contain 10 different commands. Why are these actions so vital? In what way do they go against our nature? Which of these commands is most difficult for you?

Obedience is everything.  My submitting ourselves to these commands helps us to be obedient to God's will and to have a closer relationship with him.  Human nature wants us to do worldly things.  Submitting to these commands erases that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Q23. (James 4:6-10)

Verses 7-10 contain 10 different commands.

Be subject to God

Stand firm against the devil / Resist the devil

Come close to God

Recognize that you are a sinner

Get your soiled hands clean

Realize that you have been disloyal

Purify your hearts of your spiritual adultery

Be deeply penitent and grieve

Let your laughter be turned to grief / Let your mirth be turned to dejection and heartfelt shame for your sins

Humble yourself before God

Why are these actions so vital?

Writing the commands out like I have above makes one see that it is vital to look at our lives and grieve over where we have failed and come for a cleansing  to Christ (come close to God) and thereafter be subject to Him by no longer wallowing in sin, no longer committing spiritual adultery. When evil / sinful thoughts come (that's where sin starts) resist them (that actually means resisting the devil) and remain humble before God.  We know we cannot do this alone so it is important to remain close to God and in this way we stay humble.

In what way do they go against our nature?

In general people are prone to be independent.  Right from little you hear the words from a toddler even "I can". "I do it alone". Here we learn to let go and let God. Be subject to Him. Give your will over to Him.

Which of these commands is most difficult for you?

It is letting go of the guilt that is so overwhelming after examining oneself and then realizing how I have indeed failed God.  That would almost be like finding it difficult to getting ones soiled hands clean. I really am working on that. Christ's forgiveness is enough. I am truly grateful to Him.

It reminds me of the gesture of washing of hands to prove ones innocence in a situation. Matth 27:24 Pilate washed his hands in front of the crowd, thereby claiming innocence of the blood of a just man.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

×
×
  • Create New...