James 4

This week we are to read over James 4. Some of it is hard to swallow. I know I had read it before, but now it really makes me think about things that are going on, not only in my live but the world as a whole.

James 4:1-17
1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is it not the source of your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendships with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wished to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scriptures speaks to no purpose "He jealously desires the Spirit which He made to dwell in us?" 6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE."
7 Submit therefore to God Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you Cleanse your hands sinners and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Be miserable and mourn and weep, let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will exalt you
11 Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge the One who is able to save and to destroy but who are you who judge your neighbor?
13 Come now, you who say "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead say "If the Lord wills we live and also do this or that."
16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil
17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

I know there are times I catch myself judging people, when I have no place, wanting what others have when I have great things myself, but desire bigger and better. I have prayed for things with selfish intentions and wondered why things didn't turn out the way I wanted, not even thinking/realizing that God knows MY HEART as well as he knows anyone else's.
Hebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the divisions of the soul and spirit of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart and there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

It just made me think how often we let things slip by like know one knows what's going on inside out head or 'our world'. God knows...EVERYTHING! Every peep or thought that crosses our mind he knows! Trust in Him. Rely on Him and not things or people of the world. He provides for the birds of the air, would he not do the same for us. He will not give you more than you can handle. Let things happen all in God's good time.

Just a few things that went through my head after my reading. Maybe it can be today's scripture/reflection for you...it's only words unless you apply it.

Have a FABULOUS weekend!