James 4:3-4‏

3. "[Or] you do ask [God for them] and yet fail to receive, because you ask with wrong purpose and evil, selfish motives. Your intention is [when you get what you desire] to spend it in sensual pleasures."

James takes us deeper into the reality of what asking God for things is about. Has God said we need the thing we're asking for? How did I become so wise to know what I need... if not shown by my own creator? Can I see my life beyond this very moment?

How often we see death fall upon us no sooner than we finally get the home that we sacrificed so much joy, sweat, and tears, to have... or, the job position we sacrificed family, morality, or values to get... never realizing that God never intended us to live long enough to enjoy. What he wanted for us in those final days was far greater, you can be certain of that! Besides the presumption upon God's will, we also ask for things that are just plain sinful, no matter what we think. This thing that I am asking God for... how does my having it relate to what will benefit eternal matters... not only personally, but on behalf of those around me? Although God wants there to be joy and newness of life, in life... life is not a game. Everything we do here is directly related to Life-Eternal. We must seek what God wants, and then ask God to provide "that".

4. "You [are like] unfaithful wives [having illicit love affairs with the world and breaking your marriage vow to God]! Do you not know that being the world's friend is being God's enemy? So whoever chooses to be a friend of the world takes his stand as an enemy of God."

Keeping to the same thought as verse 3, it's exactly like the relationship James describes... knowing that we vowed to follow God, His will, His way, and yet our eye is still upon the temporal, vain, and ridiculous things of this world. It may be that you have only recently repented from deaths grip upon you, and are not fully aware of all that you use to love were instruments of death... works of evil, and the fruit of a sinful world. Maybe, you have been saved for a long time, and holding tightly to that one last thing... that little secret that you know only God knows about. GOD LOVES YOU MY FRIEND, LET GO! To continue in this sin suggests that you may have been deceived into a false sense of salvation... whoever chooses to be a friend of the world takes his stand as an enemy of God. Go back to the Cross!

Let's pick up with James verse 4:5 next time.

I love you.