I don’t suppose the Apostle James would have made it in our politically correct world. He would always be criticized for speaking his mind and making sense.
James hit the problem of quarreling and strife head on.
Why is it that we suffer strife and quarrels? Why do we deal with depression and difficulty? Why are we at war with God, family, the church, and with ourselves?
James said it is because we don’t pray. When we do pray it’s with the wrong motives.
How do we pray correctly?
First, focus on the One to whom you are praying. If prayer focuses on yourself, what good does that do? Yet, most of our prayers are only about the things around us. If prayer focuses on God, we have the opportunity to experience real change in our lives.
Second, focus on pure motives. “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4:3). Can we really expect to receive in prayer when our motives are selfish and we are only thinking of ourselves.
In the sermon on the mount, Jesus heaped the highest praise on those who are pure in motive. He said: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8).
Pure hearts and pure motives mean we will be asking correctly. We will be asking according to Jesus name.
Ask God to give you a pure heart. Ask Him to bring change to your desire to please yourself.
Third, focus on humility and submission to God. When we humble ourselves before God, He will lift us up (James 4: 10). Our quarrels and strife come from exalting ourselves instead of exalting God.
If you are having trouble submitting to God, tell Him you are willing to be made willing. Let Him begin in you the process of submission and abandonment of self to God.
Then, you will see your prayers answered and your needs met.
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One Response
There are times we have an opportunity to see ourselves through the eyes of others. It tells us about both sides of that vision.
In my world before Katrina, I served on multiple boards and committees. On one of the committees was a man who had a restaurant. I tried several times a month to eat there or with him. He commented to me on more than one occasion. “Fred, you need to slow down. You eat, but you don’t dine.” Dining is something I have never picked up. In France as a Delegate from Louisiana (2004), I was reprimanded for eating everything on my plate. “Leaving nothing on your plate? It is not something elite people do.” In a part of the world where people live to eat, I have always eaten to live, to serve others. So of course I do not expect to read or see things the way others see them. I have been known for being direct, perhaps too direct as I was always conscience of a ticking clock. Consequently, I have covered much ground in a relatively short time In His Service. Since Katrina, I have been forced to stand alone as one by one my support group died or had their circumstances change, to learn how fragile “truth”is and feel what it is like for my “blood to be in the water.” It has not been a comfortable time. I have been fortunate to realize the importance of family and the magnified meaning of the word.
Thus I expect no one else on this side of eternity to understand my motivations. People generally view from their own sin state. I have had to be content with the few who have shown their appreciation, their departing commendations and the work itself. The fact that on several occasions it had been said that those who felt threatened by me treated me harshly, unjustly or unfairly. Their behavior and mine define whose we are, as well as those who stand by those entities and those who in fear, remained silent. To God be the Glory! Yes, James would likely have not fared any better than I in this age.
Blessings