James 4:1-6 “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but you don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your own pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why the scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’” What causes conflict or drama in our lives? When we have unfulfilled desires we have conflict. Only when we learn to rely on God to meet our needs, not our desires, will we truly be at peace with ourselves. Our very nature is to envy and covet, we want to collect things. Though the things we normally want are not substantial, not filling, and only temporary “fixes” for our addiction. The more we have, the more we want. This is totally opposite to what God wants for us; he wants us to be content, to trust that he will provide for us, and to seek first the kingdom of God and not be distracted by this world. This passage is not calling us to shun the lost, or people of the world. Being a “friend of the world” is embracing its values and rejecting God’s. The world teaches us to watch out for number one and that it is ok to get ahead by any means necessary – lie, cheat, steal, etc. God teaches calls us to love, give, and serve. If we choose to seek pleasure of this world, or the flesh, then we are rejecting God. To love the world is to hate God, there is no middle ground. We are programmed to look for the loop hole, God is black and white, no grey. Want the drama to leave you? Want the conflicts to cease? Instead of focusing outward, look inward and see who your actions show you love…
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