James 4:1-3

James 4:1-3 King James Version (KJV)
4 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

James 4:1-3 New Life Version (NLV)

4 What starts wars and fights among you? Is it not because you want many things and are fighting to have them? 2 You want something you do not have, so you kill. You want something but cannot get it, so you fight for it. You do not get things because you do not ask for them. 3 Or if you do ask, you do not receive because your reasons for asking are wrong. You want these things only to please yourselves.

New Life Version (NLV) Copyright © 1969 by Christian Literature International


These are my thoughts, please share yours.

1 These fights are from our flesh and while Satan wants us to fall to our flesh and may throw temptation in our way, we fight because we value our opinion or want our way. We should instead fight for His will and not our, we need to know the difference because while fighting for God’s will may cause division it’s a what we are to do but division because of us doing things our way can cause division also but without being in the Lord’s will and being in sin which requires repentance.

2 Sometimes its just a matter of going to God with what we want but often times we don’t go to Him because we don’t want Him to say no but no asking Him is as bad if He said no and we did it any way. Nobody wants things to be other than what they want but His will is a much more joyful place then us having our way. We think often only about ourselves but He think about everyone, God’s will is not centered on us, we are apart of it though.

3 Sometimes we don’t go to God because we want the pleasures of the flesh. If we don’t want to go to God because He may say no then maybe its something we shouldn’t be doing in the first place.
 
Rebellion.
People are born sinful and rebellious from birth. People want what they want when they want it and sometimes people do not care about those around them and will do whatever necessary to get all that they want.

Adam and Eve wanted to eat the fruit that God himself told them not to eat. That is rebellion and it all starts from there. Everything in our hearts wants us to do the opposite of God. So very thankful that God came to earth and poured his blood out on each of us so we could over come this nature and be restored back unto him.
 
because God has an awesome plan for each of us - Jeremiah 29:11 - when i want something i ask God if what i want is good/correct/in His will

this is my way of finding out what God has to say about each thing i want

sometimes i am surprised by God's answer

sometimes He tells me i am thinking too small

sometimes He tells me i am off track to some degree - so He corrects the wrong parts of what i want

sometimes He tells me what i want is correct

in any case - asking God what He thinks of my wants is a really good way to retrain my thoughts to line up with God's thoughts - and to learn to submit all my desires/wants to God for His approval/disapproval

in the past i had wants/desires that were unscriptural

this bothered me - i hated that such a thing was in me

but i learned to bring the wrong desires to God and get His help to eradicate them - 1 John 1:9

when they were eradicated by God's power there was no struggle at all

i was free indeed from those wrong desires/wants

prior to that i used to wrestle with myself and with the devil and get thoroughly worn out and have to do it all over again later

what a waste of time fighting with myself and the devil like this

getting a cleansing from God wiped the whole mess out of my being so that i was free to serve God

God Bless you my dear friend and thank you for this awesome thread
 
Back
Top