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Plainly Speaking
with Karl J. Forehand
The
War Within
(James 4:1-6)
by
Karl J. Forehand
What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?
Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit
murder. And you are envious 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 with wrong motives, so
that you may spend it on your pleasures.
(James 4:1-3)
James asks the question, “What causes
quarrels and conflicts among you? In
the book of James, he addresses, class wars (2:1-9), employment wars (5:1-6),
church wars (1:19-20, 3:3-18) and slander wars (4:11-12). What causes these battles? The answer: hendone, which is our
pleasure, or our desire for pleasure.
The root of most sin is selfishness. Abraham lied to save his skin. Achan kept the loot for himself and lost
the battle. David was selfish and
caused immeasurable grief by sleeping with Bathsheeba. In other words, the battle without is a
result of the battle within. What
does that mean?
For I joyfully
concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the
members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a
prisoner of the law of sin which is in my member (Romans 7:22-23)
There is
an inner part of us where our spirit talks to the Spirit of God. In that part of us we delight. We love that! But, there is another part of us that gives us great
distress. It is the outer man, or the
flesh. It wages war with the inner
man and causes the wars without. We
have to win the war within if we are going to win the war without.
3
Results of Losing the Battle Within
1. We
implement hasty solutions.
Jesus made it clear that
murder doesn’t just occur when we physically kill someone. The sin is committed in the heart. The problem comes from a “subdue them”
type of attitude. We have a huge
methamphetamine problem in our county.
The emotional reaction is to solve this problem hastily. I admit that I have had less than
honorably ideas about how to solve the problem.
The
truth is that every crime is a hasty solution. Someone is short of money, so they steal. Another wants fulfillment, so they turn to
a presumed “quick fix” of drugs. One
person wants wealth, but they don’t want to acquire it properly, so they
embezzle and scheme. The desire for
some of those things might be okay, but when it becomes the wrong desire is
when we want them so bad that we are willing to accept an improper
solution. Then, they are hedone.
The fact
that email scams and get-rich-quick schemes pull people in is a result of our
lust and our propensity for the easy solution. We want things, but our desire is out of perspective and we go
to almost any lengths to get what we want.
The man
said to God, “Isn’t a day like a thousand years to you?”
God
replied, “yes.”
“Then,”
the man continued, “Wouldn’t a second be like a hundred years?”
God
said, “Time is irrelevant to me, because I am outside time.”
The man
inquired, “Then a million dollars would be like a dollar to you?”
God
said, “Yes, I own everything.”
The man
said, “Then, can I have one of your dollars?”
God
said, “Just a second.”
We also
shouldn’t just sit on our hands. We
have to work like it depends on us and pray like it depends on God.
2. We face the wrong opponent
Rather than deal with the problem (our
wrong desires), we often square off against others. For example:
A person comes to church and suddenly
stops coming. I have found that
the reasons these people give are usually bogus. Why? Because, they
wouldn’t stop going to work for those reasons. The usual reason is because they experienced some conviction;
but instead of facing that reality, they turn their focus to others and what
they did wrong.
A person has all kinds of excuses why
they can’t worship. If worship is
between you and God, you should be able to do it anywhere and under any
circumstance. We don’t need silence
or noise or any other condition to worship, except a willingness to surrender
to almighty God. But, we make
excuses for not worshipping and blame others for falling short. The real reason we often can’t worship is
because of our sin. What most people
are really arguing about is control of the setting, which has very little to
do with worship.
A person always has a “beef” with
someone. If you constantly
complain about others, it seems to take the focus off our sin and us. What we should have a beef with is our own
sinfulness; but we conveniently shift that conviction to others.
Wrong desires lead us to hasty solution
and wrong opponents. Then,
3. We pray ineffectively
When we read these words, “You do not have
because you do not ask,” we immediately reply, “But I do ask!” What we really usually do when we pray is
tell. We work out a solution
in our own minds and then tell God to bless it.
Implied in asking is not just getting what
we ask for. We also have to
understand that when we ask we might receive correctional advice on what we
should be asking. The primary request
should be “What should I ask for?”
What if we really do ask – what are the
possible responses?
Yes. God may say:
“Granted
– it is done.”
“I
will do better than that.”
“I
will allow what is not best to teach you” (Saul as king.
All of these are under the “yes” response. God may also say:
No. Under this response, God may say:
“You do not need that.”
“That is not what I (God) desire
for you.”
“Here is what I desire for you.” (teaching)
“That is your desire and not mine”
(rebuke)
He may also say:
Wait. When He says wait, He says things like:
“It is not time yet.”
“You are not ready for that yet.”
In the asking process, you must ask to
receive. But, if the only answer is
“yes,” then you are controlling God.
A kid that gets everything he asks for has no need of a parent. A parent that gives a child everything he
asks for has no business being a parent.
The passage goes on to say that when we
finally do ask, we ask with “wrong motives.”
We tell God and others what they must do to please our desires. Our requests are often not initiated by
God in our inner man to please God.
Rather, they are initiated by our outer man to please ourselves. Before asking we should say with the
Pslamist:
Search me, O God,
and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.
(Psalms 139:23-24)
To pray effectively we must:
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Start with a pure heart
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Search God’s Word (where His will is
revealed – what to ask for)
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Submit to the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
We might say, “But that doesn’t help me
get what I want.” I believe God
responds, “That is exactly right!”
Prayer is not so you get what you want -- it is so that God can give you what He wants. Psalms 37:4-5 says:
Delight yourself
in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way
to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. (Psalms 37:4-5)
When our desires change to God’s desires,
everything changes. We don’t seek
hasty solutions, we don’t battle the wrong enemy and we learn to pray
effectively. The war without starts
with the battle within.
Karl
J. Forehand, 2002
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