JAMES 4:1-6

TUESDAY, MAY 8, 2007

WHAT DO YOU DESIRE, WAR OR PEACE?

1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? 6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “ God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.
James 4:1 - 6 (NKJV)

A NOTE FROM RON - Most of the time I choose--at random--passages from Scripture without a particular reason. There are times when I feel that God has led me to choose a passage needed by someone who might use these devotions. Occasionally, I like to do a series that covers every verse of a Book of the Bible so that the devotions can also be used as an aid in Bible Study. Recently I did such a series on the First Epistle of John. These can be found in the ARCHIVES of Prayer and Devotions. I like to choose Books of the Bible that are less often read and/or studied. This is the ninth devotion of a series on the Book of James. It is my hope that these words may be an instrument of God in helping you to draw nearer to Him.

Some times we try to separate what we want from the world and what God wants from us. For a Christian, this is not a possibility. If we say to God, “I love you” and then turn to another and show hatred and anger we are not showing Love to God. He has told us to love one another, and if we cannot obey him, we are rejecting Him and His love for us.

James spends the first five verses answering the question that he asks ”Where do wars and fights come from among you?” His answer is a simple one. They come from our desire for pleasures we do not have. A common example:  A person needs money to support an addictive habit such as gambling, drugs, alcohol or even having the finest things and pleasures of life. The money is not available to make the next purchase or to pay off back debts. What is that person to do?  Since that person has already walked far from following the ways of God, it does not bother them a bit to decide to rob a store or break into a home to get the money. After careful planning, the robbery or burglary takes place. There is only one problem; the thief is challenged by someone in the store or in the house. The gun is pointed and fired. The thief grabs the money and runs away not worrying about the victim, only thinking of the pleasure of resuming the addiction.

This also happens when people buy votes from elected officials so that their own pleasure might be met regardless of who is hurt. It is seen when big businesses try to drive out the little competitors for their own pleasure, regardless of who is hurt.  It has been seen when in the name of religion, the Protestants and Catholics in Ireland, or the various religious sects in Iraq, have gone, or continue to go, to battle for the pleasure of gaining power.

We often sit by and watch these events and feel that it does not matter, it is too far away or I am safe as it did not happen to me or to anyone that I know. How wrong we are. God does not approve of these actions and neither should we.

What then should we do? In the last verse of the text, James says:

“God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”

James is telling us that God will resist, that can mean fight against, the proud. The proud here are those who follow the pleasures of the world, and they are included in God’s rejection of Satan and his followers. But the humble who kneel before Him in prayer, who come to Him in every need and every joy, He gives grace.

As you follow God rather than the pleasures of the world, you may at times stumble along the way. When you do, remember the Promise of the Triune God when He said, “My Grace is sufficient for you.’

WE PRAY:  LORD, HEAVENLY FATHER, we have heard many times that your peace is “The Peace that passes all human understanding.” It is so hard to come close to knowing how great that Peace is. Help me to give a glimmer of that Peace to everyone I come in contact with that they may also desire that Peace and pass it on. AMEN.

A SUGGESTION FOR LIVING THE DEVOTION

Each day review the decisions you have made by asking “was that decision pleasing to God or was it seeking the pleasures of the world? Make it a special point to do this when voting, when making business decisions and decisions the affect other people.