James noted that our earthly desires can get us in trouble. This daily devotion looks at where our earthly desires lead and how it affects our prayer lives.
Nuggets
- Our earthly desires lead to quarrels among us.
- One sin generally leads to another, stifling our prayer life.
- When we do pray, our prayers are sometimes wrong.
Devotions in Living Out Our Faith series
James had just told us that growth in our faith must be built on wisdom. We want this wisdom because it brings us righteousness.
Instead, we struggle with our earthly desires. This inhibits our prayer lives.
Let’s see what James had to say.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Earthly Desires Lead to Strife
“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” (Jas. 4: 1 ESV)
Our earthly desires lead to quarrels among us.
Each of us has a fallen, sinful behavior within us. Hopefully as disciples, we have confessed Jesus as Savior and God as Sovereign God.
Just being human can lead to conflict.
James didn’t tell us what the quarrels were about. What do we fight about when we fight among ourselves?
In our society today, a lot of it is political. Then again, a lot of it is moral.
Probably in James’ day, the fight was caused by different viewpoints on how to overthrow the Romans. While they were probably unified that they wanted the Romans out, there was probably disagreement as to how the best way to accomplish that.
Adam thought that there were quarrels regarding “… influence, reputation, position, and especially property, money gains …” They wanted prosperity.
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Hmmmm. Not much different from day, right?
Focusing on earthly pursuits can divide disciples. Sides shake out to those who are compromising with the worldview and those who are remaining true to God.
Unfortunately, the worldly pursuit leads to envy and strife, as James was talking about at the end of Chapter 3. This lead to rivalries.
Humans have a lot of wants. We have covetous, prideful, ambitious desires.
- Covetousness is an inordinate greed for wealth and possessions.
- Pride is an unrealistic high opinion of oneself that is based on faulty self-esteem.
These are in total opposition to what God wants for us.
But wait a second. See what Plummer had to say. He wrote, “It is not for having differences about this or that, whether rights of property, or posts of honour, or ecclesiastical questions, that St. James rebukes them, but for the rancorous, greedy, and worldly spirit in which their disputes are conducted.”
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It is all about earthly gratification of our senses.
Spurgeon made a good point. Whatever our earthly desires are — they usually don’t give us that for which we are seeking. They really don’t give us the happiness that we seek.
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We won’t have joy until we have God as our Father. Joy comes from Him.
Earthly Desires Lead to Murder
“You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask” (Jas. 4: 2 ESV)
One sin generally leads to another, stifling our prayer life.
When we covet something, we make it our idol. An idol is an object of worship in any form that is below God that takes from God the worship that is His due and is needy and dependent on its worshipers.
Manton argued that the covetousness destroyed the trust that God has for us. When we prioritize something else over Him, we sin against Him. This damages our relationship with Him.
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I see you jumping up and down over there. You are tripping over James saying desires lead to murder.
How can James jump from lost desires to murder? Most of us have not killed someone else.
After we let sin into our lives, we grow more and more sinful. Mountain reminded us that sin travels in packs. When we have covetousness, we generally find envy. Our greed for wealth and possessions generally have a tinge of being jealous of what others have that we do not.
When we coveted something and prioritize it over God, we have murdered our relationship with him.
What did James say? “… You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask” (Jas. 4: 2 ESV).
Spurgeon elaborated on that. He wrote, “When men who are greatly set upon their selfish purposes do not succeed, they may possibly hear that the reason of their non-success is ‘Because ye ask not.’ Is, then, success to be achieved by asking?”
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This verse could be taken as talking about the prosperity gospel. We get what we ask for.
That really doesn’t work. We are not submitting to God, asking Him to provide what He wills.
We are asking God to give us what we want, how we want it, when we want it.
That isn’t worship. That sure isn’t submitting to God.
What it is really talking about is we sometimes have to ask for blessings. We do that by praying to God.
No, we do not change God’s mind about giving us something. Instead, it shows our dependence on Him.
How many times have we heard people say that they need a better prayer life? We just don’t pray as often as we should.
Praying in the Wrong Way
“You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (Jas. 4: 3 ESV)
When we do pray, our prayers are sometimes wrong.
There are conditions on prayer. We not only have to ask God, but we have to pray to Him in the right way.
Listen to how Hutchings explained it. He wrote, “Prayer is not a power entrusted to us, like that of free will, which we may exert for good or evil, for weal or woe; it must be used for good, either present or ultimate. What we pray for, it must be consistent with the Divine perfections to grant. To pray to a Holy God for the [fulfillment] of some evil desire, and to suppose that He will grant our petition, is to degrade God in a way which He Himself has denounced …”
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How are our prayers wrong? Sometimes, we pray without faith. Oh, we know that God can answer to prayers, but we question whether He will answer our prayers in these situations.
Worse yet is if we feel we don’t need God. This lacks reverence to Him and puts too much focus on ourselves.
Our prayers are wrong when they are not genuine. We have to be praying to Sovereign God, Who controls all things. We have to repent of our sins.
We can’t be complaining to God. We have to trust Him and be content with what we are given.
When we don’t submit to God, our prayers are wrong. We have to ask for His Will to be done, not our’s.
Spurgeon says that we pray without fervency. We aren’t on fire for God.
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But most of all, we have to pray to expand God’s kingdom, not our earthly desires.
We have to be specific. We shouldn’t give a genuine prayer that God save the lost. We should pray for Tom, Sally, and Elaine by name.
Making the Connections
What bounty awaits us when we pray to God the right way! “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Mt. 7: 7-8 ESV)
Yes, this means asking God’s way in His time.
But Jesus doesn’t put any qualifications on our asking. He doesn’t say Tom and Sally can ask, but Elaine can’t.
Everyone who believes Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer can ask. Only those who believe have access to God.
We have to focus on God. Hutchings told us how. He wrote, “We must not unduly dwell either upon the magnitude of the thing asked, or the unlikelihood of its bestowal, or our unworthiness to receive it, but rather turn to the merits of our Mediator …”
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We can’t look at it from our perspective. We have to look at it from the perspective of God of the possible.
How Do We Apply This?
- Be humble before God.
- Pray always.
- Don’t give lip service prayers.
- Don’t give up on our prayers.
- Submit to God in our prayers.
- Put our trust in God.
- Pray in faith.
- Pray from the heart.
Confess our sins.
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Father God. You are so good to us. By rights, You should judge us for our disobedience to You. But You don’t. Instead, You designed the Plan of Salvation so that our relationships with You can be restored. Help us to pray in ways that glorify You. Amen.
What do you think?
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