What is the source of wars and fights among?
James 4:1
Sitting at my desk reading carefully through the "interview" questions today will I think be a life changing moment. The questions were hard and because I actually took the time to really look inside my heart and answer them honestly, I discovered some things about myself that aren't all that fun to face. But I know that it is totally worth it to search my motives and to clarify what is going on inside. I hope you also took the time to really search your hearts today.
When I look at my life and from the outside look at yours, it seems like we have all been so very blessed and yet no matter how much we have, Beth is right when she says that we will always desire something we don't have, whether that is honor, material things, respect, etc. That is a powerful statement and backed up with the scriptures from Matthew 5:21 and 1John 3:15, it is packs an overwhelming punch. Loosely paraphrase those two verses:
Anger and hate bring about the same judgement as murder, which leads to eternal hellfire and the absence of eternal life.
Jill: I had a difficult time trying to come up with a paraphrase, as i felt as if all the breath had been taken out of me. Those two passages she had us read really hit home with me. I sat there reading them over and over, and my jaw dropped. I'm the same as a murderer. CREEPY. Please Lord takes this anger and jealousy from me.
Jill: I had a difficult time trying to come up with a paraphrase, as i felt as if all the breath had been taken out of me. Those two passages she had us read really hit home with me. I sat there reading them over and over, and my jaw dropped. I'm the same as a murderer. CREEPY. Please Lord takes this anger and jealousy from me.
I would never look at myself in the mirror and call myself a murderer and yet things that I harbor in my heart and refuse to take to God and ask him for absolutely qualify me for the same eternal fate as someone who actually takes a life. Thinking about this makes me stop for a moment and ask what I have been "killing" because of what is going on inside myself. That is a sobering thought. James says murder is dead wrong regardless of whether it comes from the heart or the hand.
Write out the verse for Psalm 38:9.
All my longings lie open before you O Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you.
Jill: NLT: You know what I long for Lord, you hear my every sigh.
Jill: NLT: You know what I long for Lord, you hear my every sigh.
According to James 4:3, what is another reason we might harbor an unmet desire?
He says we ask with wrong motives that what we get will be squandered on self. I also find that I don't ask because because I want to hang on to my resentment and I don't truly believe that anything will change. So even if I do ask, my motives are not good.
Jill: Our motives are all wrong. I love that James is stating this, and I love how Beth had us do those 9 questions interview. (I only have 1 thing I want most know, but in my recent past it was respect) In my work life #8 is directly related to the person I am most prone to quarrel with. That statement again knocked me on my back side and really look at things different. This was a very thought provoking study day for me.
Jill: Our motives are all wrong. I love that James is stating this, and I love how Beth had us do those 9 questions interview. (I only have 1 thing I want most know, but in my recent past it was respect) In my work life #8 is directly related to the person I am most prone to quarrel with. That statement again knocked me on my back side and really look at things different. This was a very thought provoking study day for me.
The biggest impact of today's lesson is that I really need to go deeper with this thought and truly deal with some stuff that I have been holding on to. The time is now and while I know it means a process, I am excited to ask God for every true and perfect gift and hand Him back the ones that aren't from Him.
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