The Battle Within

Scripture – James 4:1-5: ¹What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ²You 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. ³When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. ⁴You 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. ⁵Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?

Observation – (Write down what you see in the scripture.) Wow! This resonates at a deeper level than I care to explore. I don’t want to look too closely at my motives. For at the bottom of things, I really deal with self-centeredness more than anything else. James taps right into me when he writes, “You want something but don’t get it.” That leads me into all kinds of tension and conflict with people and within myself.

Application – (Write how you will be different today because of what you have just read.) It seems I hardly ever experience pure motives. They are almost always mixed. I will practice looking through the eyes and from the heart of Christ today. I will let His love lift me beyond myself.

Prayer – (Write out a brief prayer.) Lord, you can do that. Thank for the times you have done that. There are instances when I do things out of love for you and for other people without giving a thought to myself. You make that happen. Teach me to let go of my self-centeredness today. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Thanks for your unending patience and grace.