James 4:4-7 – “Help Us! 2”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁴Adulteresses! Do you not know the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world has become an enemy of God. ⁵Or do you suppose that the Scripture says emptily the spirit dwelling in us lusts toward envy? ⁶But He gives more grace, therefore it says, “God opposes proud ones but gives grace to humble ones.” ⁷Therefore, submit yourselves to God and resist the devil and he will flee from you. ⁸Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

I think before I move on, I want to record some more thoughts regarding the sin of pride.

I seriously do believe the church today has totally lost all sense of this sin. I don’t believe it is even on the radar screen, pretty much anywhere that I’ve ever had any association or knowledge.

From church history, one thing has always puzzled me – how the old writers seemed to be so godly, how they seemed to have such a depth in their relationships with God, with their knowledge of Him. And somewhere around 1800, it’s like it just fizzled away. There is almost a watershed where, after that, even the most eminent of theologians still have a shallowness that is routinely disappointing. Then I see amazing men like Charles Spurgeon and J.C. Ryle who even into those 1800’s still seemed to possess that very deep sense of God’s greatness and yet who marveled in His love and grace. And yet, even while those two men preached to them – and Spurgeon’s sermons were transcribed and published in the London times every Monday – spiritually speaking the nation of England “went to hell in a hand basket.” Read anything either of those men wrote and ask yourself, “How could a nation go to hell with men like this preaching to them?”

I suspect the answer is in the very passage before us. Pride. The devil’s sin. The sin born in a cloaking device … and yet the particular sin against which we are warned God marshals His armies to fight against. Those old writers come to a passage like James 4 and they can write for pages exposing and thrashing the sin of pride. Since 1800, writers give it passing notice and very often leave whatever it says condemning all those “sinners” out there – never even considering that James is writing to us!

I recall one rare sermon against the sin of pride after which a woman retorted, “But shouldn’t we be proud of our children, of our schools …?” Here was a woman who had claimed to be a believer for probably 60 years and she still doesn’t even know the difference between the sin of pride and the pleasure we rightly get from things accomplished. This is my case-in-point. Really? Sixty years of church-going and pride isn’t even on the radar? Sixty years of supposedly knowing God and still not knowing His enemy?

It explains a lot. It certainly explains my own life, how I could have tried so much and accomplished so little, how I could have made such bad decisions even while I thought I was sincerely trying to “do things God’s way.”

Unless pride is exposed and deliberately crushed, it utterly, insidiously destroys even the best of our intentions. But, once again, it is a self-concealing sin. Like the devil himself, it only works in the darkness. Manton said of Satan, “His policy is to blind the mind, and carry on his kingdom covertly in the darkness …” II Cor 4:4 tells us, “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,” and in 11:14,15, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness.”

As Yoda said, “Hard to see the dark side is.” And may I add, “and even harder when we aren’t even looking for it.” And I guess that is the point I’m trying to make.

Basically, I fear we live in a generation where the church itself barely even recognizes the sin of pride and certainly makes no effort to expose or renounce it. If that is the case, then we shouldn’t be surprised that we labor much and accomplish precious little. We shouldn’t be surprised that our “great” leaders go down in adultery and financial improprieties. We shouldn’t be surprised that churches all over America are so busy and yet have very little effect on the country. We aren’t even looking for the very devil’s sin that lurks within us.

God resists the proud.

So what should we do about it? What if it’s true that for some reason, ever since about 1800, the church has allowed the devil and his sin to masquerade within us with little or no effort to even acknowledge it? What if that explains why we have so little impact in this world?

I don’t know. Pray. Pray that the Lord would help me to see it in my own heart. Pray He’d help me to take my enemy very seriously and pray He’d help me be genuinely humble before Him. Pray that somehow His church would wake up and see what James is saying – that we all need to take a hard (and honest) look at the evidence of our lives and see what the fruit really tells us.

Maybe we need to submit to God and resist the devil, to draw near to God so He will draw near to us, to see ourselves as sinners and cleanse our hands, to see ourselves as double-minded and purify our hearts, to be afflicted and mourn and weep and let our laughter be turned to mourning and our joy to heaviness, to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, so He can lift us up.

Maybe we need to take James 4 seriously.

God help me. God help us.

James 4:5,6 – “Help Us!”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁵Or do you suppose that the Scripture says emptily the spirit dwelling in us lusts toward envy? ⁶But He gives more grace, therefore it says, “God opposes proud ones but gives grace to humble ones.”

As I said in my last post, verses 1 thru 5 are a very ugly catalog of who we are: fighting, warring, killing, coveting, discontent, adulteresses, enemies of God, and then having the audacity to think we’re “wise and understanding” (3:13), to consider ourselves “religious” (1:26). Verse 6 finally pins down the real problem: we’re proud.

Pride. The devil’s sin. The root of it all. “I deserve better,” says my heart and from there on it’s all downhill.

As I considered in that last post, God is a Giver. If we’ll let Him, He gives more grace. But horror of horrors, there is something in us that will utterly clog the funnel of that grace. Our pride.

The Bible is full of examples of pride and its destruction: Satan, Pharoah, Nebuchadnezzar, Haman, Herod, David, Uzziah, Hezekiah, and so many others. The book of Obadiah is entirely given to judgment on the sin of pride: “The pride of your heart has deceived you … though you soar like an eagle, I will bring you down … Oh, what disaster awaits you … you will be covered with shame, you will be destroyed forever …” (vv3-10).

God resists the proud. He opposes them. The Greek verb actually means to “marshal one’s forces against.” What a shame. The God who is a Giver has to be instead the General of His armies taking up their battle lines to destroy us!

Pride. The twisted notion that we’re better, that we deserve more, that I really should be “high and lifted up.” What I personally find most terrifying is that it is a sin which conceals itself in my heart. As the Lord said in Obadiah, “The pride of your heart has deceived you.” It is an insidious sin. I can be consumed by it, my heart can be filled with the sin of pride, and I won’t see it. We may see it in others but they don’t see it in themselves. It lodged itself in the Devil’s heart and we’re not surprised to see it in evil Haman, but what of David and Uzziah and Hezekiah? Some of the most godly men in the Bible suffered horrifically because pride wormed its way into their heart.

How could they not have seen it? Because it is a deceiving sin. It hides itself.  And it hides itself from even the most godly. I shouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t have too big a challenge to hide itself in me! In fact, I look back and see that most of my life, my heart has been full of the sin of pride. No wonder so many things have gone “wrong.” No wonder so many things didn’t turn out at all like I thought they would. In my heart of hearts, I thought I was destined to succeed famously. And why not? I was exceptional. I was better. What a shame. In so many things I can say I really did have good intentions. I often wanted to see right things happen. But I didn’t see the pride, the arrogance, that was hiding in my heart – and that the Lord could not bless me in those things. Instead He had to marshal His forces against me. But I couldn’t see it. That to me is terrifying.

Then what is also terrifying is to realize that God’s judgment on pride is not just failure. That would be bad enough – to think that even “good” endeavors will fail when pride hides in my heart. That would be bad enough, but it’s worse. God’s judgment on the sin of pride is shame. Not just failure, but shame. As He warned them in Obadiah, “Oh, what disaster awaits you … you will be covered with shame …” Here I am thinking I’m “high and lifted up” and instead I find myself wishing I could go back and right-click-delete the whole ugly business.

Insidious. Shameful. Utterly frightening. What I have determined is that I cannot resolve to be watching for the sin of pride. When it is there, I will not see it. It is born in a cloaking device. I have to watch for its symptoms. When someone says something and I find it galls me, I may be convinced what they said was just completely wrong. But what of this “galls?” Why does it gall me? Saul was galled when he heard them singing, “Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands.” Why? He was proud. It basically goes without saying that when I’m angry about anything – it’s probably a sure symptom of the sin of pride. And that is what I must look for – its symptoms.

It’s the same way hunting deer. A novice goes out looking for a deer – looking for a big, brown, four-legged creature with ears twitching and a big white tail. The problem is, by the time you see anything that obvious, he’s already seen you! A deer’s deliberate intention is to hide, to disappear. Even his color is intended to camouflage him in the woods. Hunters often walk right by deer and never know it. You simply can’t hunt deer looking for deer. That may work for a man sitting high up in a blind, but it will not work for a stalker. One has to learn where to look and how to look first for the signs that a deer might be there. Only then – when you learn to look, in a sense, for the symptoms of their presence, will you have a chance to actually “see” him – that is before he has long since seen you and bounded away.

That’s how pride is. And that is probably why we so seldom do see it. You can’t look for it; you have to look for its symptoms. In case it hasn’t occurred to anyone, that is precisely what James has been doing since 3:13. He’s calling us to consider the evidence – to look at our lives, to look at our hearts, to do any honest evaluation and ask not what I imagine is going on, but what does the evidence prove? I think I’m “religious” but what about all this anger and envy? Finally he pins it down. What are we really looking for? Pride. The devil’s sin, hiding its ugly evil, shameful destruction in our hearts.

The other reason why I suspect we don’t see it is because other sins are more obviously odious to us. I can see the sin of adultery and how it destroys families. I can see the cruelty of murder and the injustice of stealing. But, as long as another person’s arrogance doesn’t particularly hurt me, I don’t really see the harm. In fact, I can survey my own life and as long as I’m not cheating on my wife, haven’t murdered anyone (lately), haven’t burglarized my neighbor’s house, I seem to have a pretty clean bill of health. That my heart might be full of the sin of pride or that that is even a bad thing doesn’t even occur to me.

Pride can center itself on any or all of what we think to be beauty, strength, accomplishments, family, country, possessions, potential, and even religion itself – any way we attach any undue importance to ourselves.

Even having said all of the above, I find something in my heart wanting to ask, “What’s the harm? So I’m a little arrogant. As long as I don’t hurt anyone, what’s so terribly bad about that?” But wait a minute. It is the devil’s sin! When it is present, though I cannot see it, it makes me compete with God Himself, not to mention all the people around me. And in the end, God has already warned me, I will not succeed, in fact I will fail, in fact, it’s even far worse, some way or another I will go down hard in shame.  Why is my heart so determined to play down pride, to minimize its evil, to not see its devilish face? Why? Because it was born in a cloaking device. It hides itself. It deceives the deceived.

God alone can deliver us. He wants to. He gives more grace.

But there is a condition. He gives His grace to the humble.

He who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.

We must assume our rightful place. We are created beings, not God. We are created beings among created beings. We are no better than any other created being. We may have more ability in some particular area. We may be bigger, stronger, richer, more accomplished than someone else in some specific ways but we all also have our weaknesses. Albert Einstein could figure out that time is curved but couldn’t find his way home at night. Herod was rich and powerful but died eaten by worms. It is one thing to recognize our strengths – it is another to imagine somehow they make us “high and lifted up.”

We must assume our rightful place. We are here to love God and others. That is our calling for this short journey in time. We take the life He has given us, the particular array of abilities or gifts and give them as a very small part of our God’s great eternal plan. We give of our strengths and let our weaknesses remind us how much we need God … and others. We’re only part of a great eternal whole.

Guess I’ll close by saying I fear we live in a generation that has completely forgotten that God hates the sin of pride. It’s no wonder we attempt so much and accomplish so little.

God help us.

God help me.

As Princess Leia said (sort of): “Help us, O great One, Jesus; You’re our only hope!”

James 4:5,6 – “Giver”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁵Or do you suppose that the Scripture says emptily the spirit dwelling in us lusts toward envy? ⁶But He gives more grace, therefore it says, “God opposes proud ones but gives grace to humble ones.”

Verses 1 thru 5 are a very ugly catalog of who we are: fighting, warring, killing, coveting, discontent, adulteresses, enemies of God, and then having the audacity to think we’re “wise and understanding” (3:13), to consider ourselves “religious” (1:26). Verse 6 finally pins down the real problem: we’re proud.

Pride. The devil’s sin. The root of it all. “I deserve better,” says my heart and from there on it’s all downhill.

I want to take a closer look at all of this, but first I want to note the beginning of verse 6: “But He gives more grace.”

If I am willing to honestly see myself in my evil pride, if I’m willing to admit that my behavior exposes a childish, godless, selfish, evil black heart, then here’s God’s message to me: “But He gives more grace!”

“But He” is always a sure recipe for hope in the Bible, and this time is no exception!

Clear back into chapter 3, I’ve been having to face the fact that my mouth is set on fire by hell and I cannot tame it. I’ve had to face the fact that my “wisdom” is not from Heaven but demonic, of the devil, straight out of hell itself. I am, in fact, the catalog of sin we’ve read in the first 5 verses of chapter 4. The spirit dwelling in me is rotten.

Can I pause to say anyone who denies all of this only proves they’re still blind in their sin? It is the truth. But for those who will admit it, for those who will sit honestly under the hot white light of God’s Word, the result is not despair – because even as the Lord shows us our black hearts, He also whispers hope in our ears: “But He giveth more grace!”

Miracle of miracles! The One who finds me grasping and selfish and lusting after my wants is a Giver! The only One who deserves to get is a Giver! Into my black world steps One who should strike me dead, who should grab me by the collar and throw me into hell, who should wash His hands in disgust and squash me like a bug. But what does He do? “He gives more grace!” Yes, my heart is black. Yes, I am hopeless. But His grace is more. His grace is greater. Greater than my sin. Envious and lustful is what I am by nature, but grace is greater. His Spirit in me conquers the spirit in me!

Here is the cure for lust and pride, the cure for envy and our contentious fighting demanding spirit that always wants more: Grace. The grace that is more. True freedom is to be convinced that grace is the richest possession of all! God’s gift of grace and the love, joy, and peace it gives is a far better gift than anything this world can offer. “Not as the world giveth give I unto you,” (John 14:27).

Here is hope. The Healer of our souls is a mighty Physician! Satan’s power to deceive us and conquer us and damn us is nothing compared to Jesus’ power to save us!

We’re full of envy but God is full of grace!

It’s no mere coincidence that God “gives” two times in verse 6. He is the Giver. He is the One who ought to punish sin and kill us, yet Himself goes to a Cross and instead dies in our place!

Wonder of wonders. Love divine, all loves excelling.

Let me wrap this up by saying that way back at the very beginning, not long after He stepped into my life, He showed me John 17:3: “For this is eternal life, that they might know Thee, the only true God …” I realized then that all that mattered in life was to know God, to truly know Him, to know Him better and better. I’ve been down too many rabbit trails since then, each of which I deeply regret, but always, always, always I find myself back here again … knowing Him, finding again that knowing Him is the cure for everything. Knowing Him is what gives me hope. Knowing Him is what cures me. Knowing Him is what changes me. Me in my sin. Him the Giver.

Jesus. Healer. Giver. Lover.

He gives more grace!

James 4:5,6 – “Testing the Spirit”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁵Or do you suppose that the Scripture says emptily the spirit dwelling in us lusts toward envy? ⁶But He gives more grace, therefore it says, “God opposes proud ones but gives grace to humble ones.”

Verse 5 before us is something of an exegetical battleground for several reasons, of which the two biggest are that 1) the words as such don’t appear anywhere in the Scriptures and 2) one must decide which spirit is being discussed – His or ours. One can consult any decent commentary and read the various positions and their support.

Personally, I think it is consistent with the context to understand He is talking about our spirits. The words “The spirit dwelling in us lusts toward envy” are in the same vein with Gen 6:5, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Some argue that nowhere else in the NT does a writer talk about our spirit as “the spirit dwelling in us” and that phrase in particular would more naturally refer to the Holy Spirit. However, as I have worked through the Greek text of this book I find it true that James has “odd” ways of saying a lot of things. The fact is this is the only book of the NT he wrote and he is a unique person who may express himself in unique ways. Also, it doesn’t bother me at all that the words, “The spirit dwelling in us lusts toward envy” don’t appear anywhere in the Scriptures. I think James is just saying, “The Bible tells us our spirit is rotten.” That statement doesn’t have to be made particularly anywhere. It is, of course, the general teaching of the entire Bible and can be supported from many passages.

The context, all the way back to 3:13 (at least) is comparing our spirit with His. In chapter 4, we’re probing the question of why our world is so marred by conflict. He tells us the problem is our rotten spirit, our selfish, lust-driven, greedy, envious spirits, then even calls us adulteresses. Since we’re inclined to think we’re “not so bad” He then throws in, “Or do you think the Scripture speaks emptily?” About what? About our spirits. And what does it say? That our spirit “lusts toward envy.” This seems, granted, another odd way of saying things, but I think James’ point is well taken. Our spirits are naturally drawn passionately toward evils like envy – the restless angry resentment that someone else might have “more” than us.

The fact is that is quite true and we’d do well to admit it.

This verse (and the rest of the Bible) is telling us our sinful inclination toward lust, envy, malice, and endless war is not an unfortunate choice we make. It is our very spirit. It is “the spirit dwelling in us.” If we would honestly accept this truth, then it becomes all the more apparent why contentment in the Lord Himself and love to Him and others is the only cure. There is no cause for strife if our heart is not “wanting” things, if it is content with what the Lord provides, and if our highest priority is to be loving Him and others. His Spirit is the only cure for our spirit!

We should note here, as Barnes points out, James’ clear intent is to move us “to the duty of honestly and unflinchingly considering what is the disposition of heart that underlies and reveals itself through our conduct.” Clear back in 3:13 he asked the question who is wise and understanding and then insisted, “Let him prove it by his life.” From that point on, he has said in different ways that our conduct will prove the true condition of our hearts. As Jesus said, “By their fruits you shall know them.” He’s calling us to “test our spirit.”

When we think we can call ourselves “religious” and yet our lives are marred by conflict and anger, we “suppose the Scriptures speak emptily.” We suppose they speak “in vain.” Of course the standard and immediate response will be, “Oh, I don’t do that.” But that response is a sure bet we do.

This is a point where none of us can search someone else’s heart. It is precisely this point where God calls us to search our own. It is here our “duty to honestly and unflinchingly consider what is the disposition of heart that underlies and reveals itself through our conduct.”

God help me to be honest who I am.

James 4:4 – “The Line”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of this verse:

⁴Adulteresses! Do you not know the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world has become an enemy of God.

Honestly, to me it is very difficult to see how to apply this passage. I think in explaining why I find it difficult to apply, I’ll actually move closer to seeing how. That being said, this is likely to be a long post. So here goes --

Once again practically every commentator reads this verse and then goes off on a harangue about “those bad people out there” who make themselves “friends of the world.” I’m sorry but I can’t buy that approach to Scripture. The Bible was written to change me. “These things were written for our admonition …” I have to read this and then say, “Lord, search me and try me, and see if there be any wicked way in me.”

I say all that just to put on paper that I can’t buy the broad-brush “bad ole people out there” interpretation of this passage. If you do, this is an easy passage to apply [to them.]

First of all, I think it is too easy to read this and immediately our mind goes to our list of “do’s and don’ts.” They equate “friendship with the world” with a list of practices of “the world.” In many peoples’ minds, “friendship with the world” = going to movies, dancing, tobacco, alcohol, and listening to “worldly” music. They smugly commend themselves that they are not “worldly” because they “don’t do those things.” They call themselves “separated” and think that makes them religious. A lot of people, I believe, build their entire sense of “righteousness” on this very thought. The Pharisees built their religion on their list of “do’s and don’ts,” on being “separated,” and where did it get them? They crucified the Messiah! They were “separated.” They were very “religious,” yet their “religion” actually made them Satan’s minions! They scrupulously avoided “worldly” practices and yet they were the very enemies of God!

So “friendship with the world” isn’t something cured by a list of do’s and don’ts. The lists won’t cure us of “worldliness.” The Pharisees championed that approach and you see where it got them.

The next thing that we might think is that we need to somehow minimize the time we spend with “lost” people, that they are “the world” and we just can’t get too “friendly” with them. In other words, “friendship with the world” means being too close to the people of this world, spending too much time with them.

But wait. If that is our conclusion, something is really wrong with our thinking. Jesus was a friend of sinners. He loved the tax collectors and the prostitutes and they knew it and loved Him in return. Jesus came to this world to live among us. He prayed not that the Father would “take us out of the world but that He would keep us from the evil one.” Johnstone said of Jesus: “… His life was pre-eminently one spent in the world, in constant and close contact with men. ‘Friendship with the world,’ then, does not mean simply presence in the midst of activities of the world, and taking part in its work … The question then, you observe, is strictly one in regard to the state of the affections.”

“The question then, you observe, is strictly one in regard to the state of the affections.” Johnstone is one of the (very) few writers who took the time to see there’s more going on here than just washing our hands of “worldly practices” or of avoiding time with “sinners.” Well then what is it? I would suggest when the Lord warns us here against “friendship with the world” and about making ourselves His enemies, we need to stop dead in our tracks and ask Him to open our eyes to see what He really means.

That is precisely where I am struggling. I can’t just dismiss a list of practices and I certainly can’t just isolate myself from people.

On the other hand, there are clearly practices of this world where I don’t belong and people I don’t necessarily want to be with.

As I live in this world and spend my time with the people of this world, where is the line between being like Jesus or simply becoming a “friend” of the world and thus an enemy of God?

As I have pondered and prayed over this, the only thing that makes sense to me is to say that line is defined by love. My mind goes back to Jesus’ words that the only thing that matters is to love God and love people. Can I safely say that the moment I stop loving God and people, I’ve crossed the line? Can I say this instead of looking for some line defined by “do’s and don’ts” or by certain people and their activities? I think I can. I John 2:15,16 says: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”

Why would I ever not love God and people? Is it not because I am loving my lusts more? Is that not exactly what John is saying? I am either loving God (and therefore people) or I am loving something this world offers me – pleasures, possessions, or applause. And the problem is not the pleasures, possessions, or applauses in and of themselves. The problem is my love for them. This is also consistent with the context back again in James 4. This verse 4 we’re studying follows verses 1-3, where he’s been talking about our “desires that battle in our members.” That is what causes the wars and fightings among us. The problem is what is going on inside of us and it comes down to a question of what we’re desiring, what we’re loving.

So it is a love problem!

Doesn’t this explain how the Pharisees could be scrupulously religious and “separated” and yet be found the enemies of God? They did all of that but they didn’t love. They loved each other’s applause but they didn’t love God or people. And doesn’t this explain how Jesus could spend so much time with “sinners” and yet be “without sin” Himself? He loved God and He loved them. He just never loved what they loved.

I am thinking that is exactly what we should do with James’ admonitions here. We should be mindful what we love. In the context, when what we love causes us to war and fight, when it creates in us bitterness and selfish ambitions, then we can be sure we’re loving the wrong things and have made ourselves not the friends of God, but His enemies.

I have to say, putting all of this in the metaphor of “friendship with the world/enmity with God” is for me too obscure. Love God/love people makes sense to me. Then it is clear to me the problem is what is going on inside of me. When I try to see it through the “friendship of the world” metaphor, it is hard not to see the problem as practices and people. But they are not the problem. I am. So for myself, I certainly appreciate James calling my attention to the problem from a different angle but I think the only way I can apply this is to keep with the Love God/Love people approach.

One last thing before I close. The fact the problem is inside each of us is also supported by James using the vocative “Adulteresses!” He probably used the feminine form either because he is referring to us as the Church, the Bride of Christ, or simply to shock us men into listening to what he’s saying. What is really, really ugly here is to realize what he’s saying. It would be bad enough for a wife to have an affair with another man – but what if that other man was her husband’s worst most bitter enemy? How unspeakably evil would that be? But that is exactly what we’re doing when we give our hearts to this world’s pleasures, possessions, and applause. It is spiritual adultery, but worse than that, it is adultery immersed in betrayal.

But that is who we naturally are.

I wish my heart wasn’t like that. I don’t want to make myself the Lord’s enemy. God help me to mind my heart, to mind my desires, to love like Jesus. But most of all, as I ponder all of this, I am thankful for His grace. I am His enemy. My very existence is to betray Him, to go “a whoring” after whatever idol allures my heart today. And yet, “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!” “Behold what manner of love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God!” The other day my mind was bludgeoning me with all my failures. I opened my Bible and the very first words my eyes fell on were in Isaiah 41:9: “I said, ‘You are My servant;’ I have chosen you and have not rejected you.”

He’s just like that. Kind to His bitter enemy. And that love melts my whoring heart. Makes me want to never again for one second do anything but love Him in return. To love people like He does. Makes me cry with the old song writer, “Adam’s image now efface; Stamp Thine image in its place! Second Adam, from above, reinstate us in Thy love!”

Wars and fightings. Bitterness and selfish ambition. Killing and coveting. Enemies of God. Loving what He hates. Adulteresses. Yep, that’s pretty much me.

Lover of my soul, make me different.

James 4:1-3 – “Sweet Spirit”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹Where [do] wars and where [do] battles among you [come] from? [Do they] not [come] from here – out of your pleasures which are soldiering among your members? ²You lust and do not have; you murder and covet and are not able to obtain; you battle and war; you do not have because you do not ask. ³You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly in order that you may squander [it] on your pleasures.

In verse 2, James accosted us that we often do not have simply because we did not ask. In verse 3, he addresses the possibility that we did ask but didn’t receive.

As I read this verse, what jumps off the page at me is that the major reason we ask but “don’t receive” is simply because the Lord knows better – that we simply “know not how to pray for what we ought” (Rom 8:26). As I survey my own life and my prayers, the answer has often been “no” but then as time goes by I see how wise and loving the Lord was not to give me what I asked for. In fact that is true to such a point that I can honestly say I don’t want Him to give me what I ask for. I want Him to give me what He knows is best. Then I just need grace to live in a world often far from what I wish it was. All that said, I also live in the amazement of how often He does answer my prayers and how unbelievably kind He has been to me. In fact, when He answers prayers, He usually does it in ways that really are immeasurably more than I could have asked or thought. He really does Himself give “a full measure, pressed down and running over.” He is still the One who said, “Ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full” and “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

However, in James 4:3, we have to wrestle with this problem that my “no” answers might be because there’s something wrong in my asking. I hesitate to even wander into this matter because pretty much all my life I’ve heard people saying things like “You shouldn’t pray for your own needs and wants. That’s selfish. You should only pray for other people.” Or I’ve heard things like, “You shouldn’t bother God with little things,” … like finding a pair of shoes on sale or finding that left hand glove that seems to have disappeared. I soundly and totally disagree with those attitudes. In the Lord’s prayer itself, Jesus taught us to say, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Elijah prayed for rain. Hannah prayed for a son. John prayed for his friend’s good health (III Jn 2). David prayed to be delivered from his enemies. Jeremiah instructed the exiles to “Pray for the prosperity of their city” (Jer 29:7), and Jesus was concerned when people were hungry. Jabez prayed “Oh that You would bless me indeed and that Your hand would be with me, that you would enlarge my borders, and that You would keep me from pain,” and the Bible specifically says he was more honorable than his brothers and that the Lord answered his prayer (I Chron 4:9,10).

In fact, God wants us to pray over the least little details of our lives. That is the point of Jesus’ teaching in Luke 18:1: “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” That is His point as well in Matt 7:7-11: “Ask and it will be given to you … how much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” The Lord wants us to pray about everything. It’s just like when my own children were very small – it was such a delight just to hear their little voices. I wanted them to ask me for anything at all their little hearts desired. I wanted them to ask, because I enjoyed when I could give them what they asked for. And even when I could not, I felt it was a valuable teaching time – explaining why I could not, or encouraging them to pray to God for it.

So, with that firmly asserted – that the Lord wants us to pray for everything and anything our hearts desire, big or small, anytime, anywhere – yet we come to James’ admonition here in verse 3. It is possible that our prayers are not answered because we “ask them amiss, that we may squander them on our pleasures.”

How do we balance this with all I said above? I don’t think it really that difficult. The fact is that anything we do is susceptible to motive. The little child can ask for something sweetly or they can be a demanding little brat who throws a tantrum when you say no. Sweet little children wrap us around their finger. Demanding little brats get spankings. It’s no different with the Lord. It’s up to us to keep the sweet child’s heart. That is James’ point.

Now what exactly is he talking about, this “asking wrongly, that you may squander it on your pleasures?” I think we need look no further than I John 2:16, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” which I have found convenient to designate our love for “pleasures, possessions, and applause.” The lust of our flesh. Once again, the evil “wanter” within us. The fact is we are so evil, we can even sin in the process of doing something as holy as prayer! We see it happen in Luke 18:11 when, “The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector.’” Clearly, even in the business of prayer, we need to be vigilant not to let our flesh be the driver of our hearts.

Once again, that doesn’t mean we should hesitate to ask for even the smallest thing we want or need. It just means, even in that, we need to be aware of our hearts. Will the Lord hear the sweet voice of His precious little child, or the demanding voice of a brat who needs to be spanked? We make the choice what spirit we ask in. Then He makes the choice how to respond.

So let us ask away, but let us do it in the sweet spirit of a child and their loving Father and try to be aware when our evil “wanter” is rearing its ugly head. Love God, love people. Even in prayer!