Verse of the Day for July 31

James puts a tender promise inside a severe paragraph. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Around it are instructions to submit, to resist the devil, and then one of the hardest lines in the letter, let your laughter be turned to mourning.

The people he is writing to are not at their best. He calls them ye sinners and ye double minded. They have been fighting each other and praying with wrong motives. And it is to them, not to the polished, that the invitation is given. Come near. He will come near too.

The mourning is not meant to crush them. It is the honest sorrow of people who have seen what their divided hearts have done. You cannot draw near while pretending nothing is wrong. Clean hands and a purified heart begin with tears more often than with smiles.

That is a good word for what comes next. A month of prayer is ending. Another will begin, and you will not be perfect in it. But the pattern is simple. You take one honest step toward God, and he meets you with his own.

So tomorrow, wherever you wake, in a crowded room in Lagos or a quiet flat far from home, take that step. Confess the thing you already know. Then expect him to draw near.

The invitation to come near is given to sinners, not to the finished.

Honest sorrow is often the first step into God's nearness.