Day #51

God, please help us to slow down and understand what you are teaching us.  Help us to apply it to this day and the days after.  Help us to take the prayer requests seriously and to pray for people until we hear an answer.  We love you with all we have.  Amen.

Yesterday’s lesson was on being friends with the world… James 4:4.  To summarize what we learned, please read and look up the following verses.  SERIOUSLY LOOK UP THE VERSES!!

Christians get involved with the world a little bit at a time.  First we start by being friends with it (James 4:4).  This is where we get a little stained by it and areas of our lives start meeting the approval of the world (James 1:27).  This friendship then leads to loving it (1 Johns 2:15-17).  Then the love leads to being shaped by it (Romans 12:2).  The sad end is the suffering that comes from being a part of the world.  After all, God will alert us by disciplining our misbehavior (bringing on painful situations) so that we can see the sin and repent (1 Corinthians 11:32).   Finally, our works, all that we have done, will be tested “yet as by fire” (1 Corinthians 3:10-15).

Read James 4:5.

What does this verse say about God’s reaction to the love of the world?  That is right!!  He is jealous!  God’s deepest desire is that our spirit worships Him alone.

NOTE:  Even though James is talking to Christians, the spirit that James is referring to is not the Holy Spirit.  He is talking about the spirit that God created within each human since they were formed in their mother’s womb.  He yearns for that spirit to worship HIM.

The following are verses about God’s jealousy.  SERIOUSLY LOOK UP AND READ.

Exodus 20:5

Exodus 34:14

Deuteronomy 4:24

There is no question about His desire.  The instruction is clear.  He knows what the worship of anything else will end with.

If you will go with it, I would like to explain a bit better by the description below.  Ask God to help you see with His eyes and get this.

We often see the word “flesh” in the Bible.  When the Bible refers to our “flesh,” it is talking about our sin nature that we inherited from Adam and Eve when they disobeyed God and therefore brought sin into the world.  So, we are prone to sin… since birth.  But, there is a distinction we must learn today.  Our physical body is not the “flesh.” Our bodies are not sinful.  The body is actually neutral.  So the flesh and the body are separate. Got it?

When a person becomes a Christian, the Holy Spirit within them can use the BODY to glorify God, OR the “flesh” can use the BODY to serve sin.  You see what is happening?  There is a battle over what will operate the BODY. 

When you chose Christ, you were given a new nature inside you… a desire to love and please God, but the old nature in you did not disappear or get changed.  This is why we battle within our hearts.

“The sinful nature does not want what the Spirit delights in. And the Spirit does not want what the sinful nature delights in. The two are at war with each other. That’s what makes you do what you don’t want to do.”  Galatians 5:17.

“Why do you fight and argue among yourselves? Isn’t it because of your sinful longings? They fight inside you.”  James 4:1

The Holy Spirit within our hearts, as believers, jealously guards our relationship to God, and the Spirit is grieved when we sin against God’s love.  Weirsbe Commentary exert

Living to please your old nature (your flesh, or the WORLD, is to declare war against God.

“The sinful mind is at war with God. It does not obey God’s law. It can’t.”  Romans 8:7

When we allow our flesh to control our mind, we lose the blessing of fellowship with God.

“The way a sinful person thinks leads to death. But the mind controlled by the Spirit brings life and peace.”  Romans 8:6

TARGET of the DAY

Want to have a body that is controlled by the Holy Spirit?  Talk to God as many times as you can today, to the point that someone would think you are crazy.  Talk in your thoughts, talk out loud, write to Him… in whatever you choose, simply communicate with Him.  But, more than talking, listen to His still small voice.  Ask Him to help you distinguish what your “flesh” is telling you and what the “HOLY SPIRIT” is telling you.  Choose the Spirit’s way!!  He is beginning a change in you right now:)

Memorize this week’s memory verse, as well as the all the others.  Pray for the prayer requests:)  Give a praise:)