James 4:1-7
Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 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. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 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. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously"?
But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
"God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble."
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Personal Challenge...
What can be added to these inspired words? Nothing. I must constantly be examining the state of my heart and my motives, submitting to God in humility if I want to see Him active in my life and answering my prayers. When I live my life this way I will be able to be in the world, shining His light, but not of the world, pursuing the pleasures of the world.
I like how Maximos the Confessor puts it:
"The rewards for the toils of virtue are dispassion and spiritual knowledge. For these are the mediators of the kingdom of heaven, just as passions and ignorance are the mediators of eternal punishment. It is because of this that he who seeks these rewards for the sake of human glory and not for their intrinsic goodness is rebuked by the words of Scripture: 'You ask, and do not receive, because you ask wrongly'"
No comments:
Post a Comment