Our Desires
OPENING PRAYER:
Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you today to give you thanks and to seek you. We thank you for all that you’ve done for us and provided for us. This morning as we read and study your word, please help our understanding. We love you and praise you.
READ:
”What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.” James 4:1-2 (NIV)
REFLECT:
How should we read the Book of James? I love my NIV Student Bible, a beautiful leather-bound gift from my grandparents. Each chapter is introduced with some historical background along with a recommendation for understanding where the author was coming from and how to read it. For James, it says that he believed that words were not enough and always gets straight to the point. “He was a simple, homespun preacher, perturbed at people who were not living right.”
This week we will look at James 4:1-11, where he shows that trying to meet our own needs leads to sin. Today’s verses deal with fights and quarrels – something we are all too familiar with!
Are unmet needs and wants (i.e. “desires that battle within you”) the motivating factor behind every fight? Picture a giant iceberg. Some of the ice is visible above the surface of the water, but an even greater and more dangerous portion is hidden under water. That is our prayer life. We often spend our time in prayer on what is above the surface, but God desires to work on the huge, unseen mass below the surface.
APPLY:
James is motivating us to speak frankly. So here is the hard truth: The desires that I have that are causing me to quarrel and fight are not from my heavenly father, but from my own selfishness, pride and conceit. It takes two people to quarrel – what is my part?
CLOSING PRAYER:
Thank you, Jesus, for caring about us and for loving us with your unfailing love. We don’t want anything to separate us from you. Please help us with the unseen battles within us. We desire to live in harmony with each other. Amen.
WORSHIP: