James 4

Here in chapter 4, James held nothing back. Check it out: "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your own passions. You adulteresses!" (vv 1-4). Wow!

The people to whom James wrote apparently wanted a lot of stuff—material things—and when they didn't get what they wanted, they fought and argued and even killed in order to get it. That's pretty low. But then, they got God involved. They asked him for the things they wanted—not to use them for his glory, but to satisfy their own passions.

Here's the imagery: A woman who goes to her husband and asks him for money so she can go buy him a gift. Of course he loves her so much that he's delighted to give her the money. Then she takes that money, goes down the street, and pays another man to sleep with her. She betrays her husband not only by committing adultery, but using his money to pay for it.

This is what we do to God! We ask him for things, and often he graciously gives them to us, and then we use those things to satisfy ourselves! We forget that God is far more satisfying than anything here on earth. Even the good things he has given to us are to be enjoyed because they have been given to us by God, and we should use them to bring him glory. Don't give your greatest love to the things of this world; use the things of this world to give your greatest love to God.

Friends, if you have betrayed God in this way, please repent. But also know that there is hope: God gives grace! (vs 6). Therefore, humble yourself before the Lord, and he will lift you up (vs 10).