James 4
James 4:1-17
1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
2 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.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
4 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.
5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “GOD RESISTS THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
12 There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;
14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
The promised blessings of God are ours to receive by faith, but they are never meant to occupy the motivation of the heart. When involvement in things of this world, even things of apparent validity, take over our identity, they lead us away from their Source. When excitement and inspiration for the things in His hand overtake a desire for what is in His face, there is an assurance of losing them both. The very things God provided for the care of His children in the Promised Land became the distractions from Him that led to their demise. Instead of becoming overwhelmed and impressed with ourselves and even the good things God is providing in our lives, there is a great necessity to only allow consuming infatuation to be for Him. It’s only by humility in His presence, in awe at His feet, that assurance can be real for an expectance of continued provision from Him that will not corrupt or degrade. It’s only in willingness to let go completely of what appears to be our possessions and plans for something that is yet to be discovered in Him that the adventure He has designed for us can be our experience.
Friendship is something that requires our direct initiation and participation. When these actions are occupied by the temporary trinkets of this life, there will be no friendship left for the amazing One who will more than provide for anything in this and the next life. Rather than being giddy about some impression of the world, there is an opportunity to have more than enough while remaining fixated on friendship with the Provider of it all. How much will be missed in the brief vapor of our life when its breaths are given to an illusion of significance? How many God buildings will be left unconstructed for the huts of our own making?