Welcome to day 35 of our James Bible Study! Wow, we’ve been at this more than a month! Way to stick with it. You will be blessed by your consistency and dedication.
Let’s begin chapter 4! Some good stuff in these verses.
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 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. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. James 4:1-3 (NIV) emphasis mine.
James is pretty serious here. Do you think envy and jealousy cause many quarrels? Think back to the last argument you had. Or the last time you felt you’d been wronged. Were either of these things part of the problem?
Friend, let me be the first to admit that when my hackles go up, it is often because I feel I have a right to something. I want control. Of myself, of a situation, of my family, etc. And is that the right motive? Because of my own selfish nature, I want things MY way.
Ever had a time where you were really upset over an issue and later looked back and thought, wow, I acted like a two year old brat. Was it really worthy of that much upset?
Journal your thoughts today. Think about an unresolved issue. Do you have any impure thoughts or feelings that need to be checked? Ask God to show you where you need to adjust your thinking and feelings. Do you have unforgiveness? Does this make you a peacemaker as chapter 3 instructed?
Today, keep working on verses 1:1-7 because we’ll add verse 8 tomorrow.
Blessings,
