Buy me some happy?
James 4:1-3 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.
Yesterday was a rough day; a Monday is the easiest explanation. Things just seemed to not go as planned all day long; plans got changed all day long; things planned did not get accomplished; the list goes on. This creates an inner battle with me, a battle of anxieties many times. A battle that grows underneath the surface of the tasks of the day. I even found myself wanting to buy something to feel good, or to reward myself for all my hard work as I thought. I wanted to buy myself some “happy”. We all have most likely been down that road. Yesterday it created a war in my mind that continued until I went to bed. The only way to escape this battle seemed to be sleep.
Much of James 4 is speaking to the dissension in the early church. Dissension divides, and Satan smiles at the division. I personally know of this; my family was divided over church at a very young age, and I still carry that weight. I find myself today in many of the same struggles, of our place of worship is divided among its members. Matthew Henry states; “What is sheltered and shrouded under a specious pretence of zeal for God and religion often comes from men’s pride, malice, covetousness, ambition, and revenge.” OUCH. The world is coming into the church more than the church is going out into the world. I could take that money I did not have to spend anyway, and spend it on someone who truly does not have; to show them the love of Christ in a world far from Christ.
I am so tired. So tired of all the selfishness of society; so tired of all the materialism of the place where God has me currently. I found myself yesterday drifting back into the desires of the flesh. I see all that is around me and still somewhere inside me I still want. This war is a war of ourselves, a war of body and soul. Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. These wars of self creep into our lives in so many ways; leading so many decisions and discussions. As I gave my testimony this weekend, the root of it is pride. God is still working on me and showing me how much of it still exists. I pray that no matter how painful it becomes, He still continues to break down me in that realm.
oneminuteministry 