May 24, 2019

ENMITY WITH GOD

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

"The Spirit who dwells within us yearns jealously." What in the world does this mean? When we gave our lives to Christ and began our journey to theosis, to be like Him, we were filled by the Holy Spirit. He dwells within us. It is from within us that the Holy Spirit yearns for us to live a life separated from this temporal world and united with God in the spiritual world. This is a jealous yearning. But what do we do instead? We live proud lives rather than humble, submissive to God lives. We seek after our own desires, passions, and pleasures. We covet the things of this world. It is this lifestyle, these decisions to live no differently than the rest of the world who have not given their lives to the world, that puts us at enmity with God. We wonder why our prayers are not answered. We wonder why we do not sense God's presence in our lives. We wonder why our life is no different than the lives of everyone else. It is because we are at war with that very Spirit that lives within us and that war spills over to those around us. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!