James 4:1-4

James 4:1-4 (NIV)

What causes fights and quarrels among you?  Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?  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.  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.  You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?  Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

We might as well admit that there is nothing good within us.  Don’t get me wrong, but if we don’t stay on our knees in front of the Father, we will get caught up in what we want and it’s usually the wrong thing.  It’s ok to have a little money, as long as we aren’t trying to keep up with the Jones’.  It’s ok to have nice clothes, just as long as we’re not trying to overly “dress to impress”.  God looks at the heart, and before we can think about what we want, God already knows the who, what, when, where, why and how of our intentions.  In the end, what we do for Christ will last, and it won’t matter how much we have in the bank, what type of mansion on earth we were able to possess, what type of car we drive, whether or not our spouse is the best looking person on the planet, or if our kids are Nobel Peace Prize winners, but if we lived our lives to the glory of God.