Evening

November 29

James 4:1-3 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.

Godly wisdom produces a peace. Worldly wisdom is always self-seeking and therefore erupts in strife. It starts with desires in the heart. If your desires are surrendered to your Creator, whom you trust, then He will bring every needed thing into your life. Then you don't have to vie with others for position and power. But if, on the other hand, you think that you must cunningly and shrewdly get the upper hand over others to get what you want, you will end up in a fight or quarrel with them.

God is the giver of all good things (James 1:17). All that His children need to do is ask. The world believes success is to fight and quarrel and come out on top. It is the evolutionary mindset that tells us it is the strong that survive. The problem is that there is always someone stronger than you. Though you may not realize it, God is sovereign over all and stronger than all.

When we finally come to see that we must ask God, we often start with immature requests. We want to win the lottery. We want any number of things that are for our selfish pleasures. It is not that God does not want us to enjoy life, but that He knows what is truly good for us. His mercy keeps Him from giving us some of our requests. In time we learn to ask for His will as He reveals it to us. That brings us into the truly blessed life.

Consider: Have you learned to pray according to the will of God? Not getting what we desire is often the mercy of God.