October 21, 2012 – Day 14

4       What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ² 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. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. ^[1]

We really don’t like to admit it, but the reason why we argue and fight with others is because of some unfulfilled desire within us. Human nature is such that it desires often what it cannot have and not just what it desires. When we cannot get what we want then our frustration leads us to quarrel. James goes to the heart of the human dilemma where we struggle to get and retain what we want. Often times we are not even certain that we really want what we express because of the battle that rages on the inside of us. Isn’t it ironic that the very things that cause people to fight, fuss, and fume are often the things they don’t even really want?

The greatest irony, however, is that all the fighting, fussing, and fuming is not necessary. We serve a God that desires to give to His children. We have access in His presence to ask what we will of Him. The problem, however, is that we tend not to ask but instead try to get what we desire on our own; and then when we do ask, we ask from wrong motives. Our wrong motives are revealed in how we handle what we do receive from the Lord. We are like children with too much money in a candy store buying everything we can just to satisfy our new found freedom.

It is a marvelous thing to know that we can come to the Lord in prayer and receive from Him what we ask. But we cannot afford to come treating Him like a ‘sugar daddy’ or denying His sovereignty. God is predisposed to bless His children but we must walk faithfully and obediently according to His Word. If we desire to see our prayers answered then we must check our motivation, our faithfulness and our obedience. Perhaps our prayers have not been answered because we have not come ‘correctly.’

Lord Jesus, forgive us for taking You for granted. Forgive us for treating you as our servant and getting angry with You when You did not do as we asked. Forgive us for living our lives in rebellion instead of obedience and still expecting You to bless us with all good gifts. Teach us today to know Your will for our lives that we may ask according to Your will and not our flesh. Mold our will to Your will so that our motives conform to that which pleases You. We surrender all that we are to You this day and look for the blessings of obedience that are to come, in Jesus’ name. Amen.