James 4, Submit Yourselves to God

James 4:1-12
Submit Yourselves to God

4:1-3 Quarrels
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

I tend to have trouble asking God for help. It's not usually a pride issue, like some people have - it's more not feeling like I deserve his help. But I do. I'm always afraid that my motives are wrong, like what James writes about here. But I can't be afraid to ask God for help, even when I think my motives are wrong.

4:4-6 Friendship with the World
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

It makes me nervous thinking about being friends with the world, because it's so hard to tell with today's society if you're obeying the world, or obeying God. I always try to make glorifying God the main priority in everything I do. As long as I want to please him, I know I'm on the right track.

4:7-10 Purify Your Hearts
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to god and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

I read this as a "pep talk," though it's not very peppy. Change our joy to sorrow? What?! But it's just a reality check. We're ALL sinners. We can't change that. We should be filled with sorrow at our sinful ways. But God saves us from sin and forgives us, and we should be grateful.

4:11-13 Judging
Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you - who are you to judge your neighbor?

I know I need to watch my words towards others - not only to their faces, but also behind backs. We all struggle with this. We want to rant and vent about that person who makes our day miserable...but that's not what we should do. We don't know what kind of day they were having, or what's going on in their lives. We should focus more on bringing positive attitudes to others and brightening their days, instead of bringing them down with hurtful words.