Day #49

Please do everything you can not rush this time today!  Slow down.

Give thanks to God this morning and talk to Him.

Read James 4:3.

Yesterday we learned a serious amount about what causes fights, quarrels, and murder among Christians.  Do you remember what causes these things?

That’s right!  The war within our hearts!

At the very core of this war within us is the issue of COVETING… desiring something you don’t have (thought) and then actively pursuing the thing you don’t have but never being able to get it (action).
 

“Though shalt not covet” is the last of God’s 10 commandments, but if it is broken, all of the other 9 will be broken as well.  Covetousness can make a person murder, tell lies, gossip, slander, dishonor their parents, have sex outside of marriage, and in one way or another violate all of God’s moral laws for us.

NOTE: Remember two things.

1.    God’s standards are so high that even hating someone in your heart is considered murder to Him. 

2.    Lying can be done by telling a straight out lie with your words or by withholding the truth.  If you lead someone to believe something that is not true, in whatever way, it is still a lie.

This war with in our hearts has two results…

1.    Wrong Actions:  This issue of covetousness starts in the heart and then moves into our actions.  It courses like a cancer among the people we come in contact with.  This is devastating to our Christian circles.

2.    Wrong Praying: “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on YOUR pleasures,” (James 4:3 NIV).  When our praying is wrong, our whole Christian life is wrong.  The purpose of prayer is not getting what we want done, but getting what God wants done.

Ultimately, selfish living and selfish praying will always lead to war.  In other words if there is war on the inside there WILL be war on the outside.

Characteristics of those who have war raging within them…

-         Always seem unhappy

-         Don’t seem to enjoy life

-         Instead of being thankful for the blessings they do have, they are complaining about what they don’t have.

-         They don’t get along with other people because they are always envying others for what they have and do.

-         They are always looking for the “magic something” that will change their lives, when the real problem is within their own hearts.

Exert from Wiersbe Commentary

Whoa, wait a minute…before we start looking at others, let’s look at ourselves.  Do we have any of these symptoms?  Talk to God about it right now. 

Instead of seeking God’s will, do you sometimes tell God what He is supposed to do, and then get angry with Him if He does not obey?  Talk to God about it right now.

TARGET of the DAY

Click on 1 John 5:14-15.

Click on Ephesians 5:17.

This passage of scripture does not mean that we have to somehow see into the future and know what God wants to happen and then pray for that.  That would be impossible!  What this passage means is that if we pray in line with what we have found is pleasing to God in scripture, we are praying according to His will.

Click on Matthew 6:9-13.