James 4:1- 3 “What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you? You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.”
It was incredible! Everyone in town was a witness! For years, Mr. O. had controlled this small town in every way imagineable – the politics, the business, the school board. There was not a single organization in town that did not have one of Mr. O.’s representatives involved and reporting to him. Mr. O. controlled prices in local stores. Mr. O. controlled teachers’ salaries. Mr. O. even controlled the amount children would pay to eat lunch at school. People who had opposed Mr. O. either gave up or left town. Years ago, Mr. O. had built himself a huge mansion on a hill overlooking the town so that he could keep an eye on everything! The only time Mr. O. would invite someone to his mansion was to complain or to insult them. No! Nobody coveted an invitation to meet with Mr. O.!
But three days ago, Mr O. had gone into the hospital with a heart attack, and this morning word had come that Mr. O. had died. Within minutes after this news hit town, someone noticed a puff of smoke lazily curling up from behind the mansion. At first, people thought someone was merely burning trash at the neighbors’ house, but soon it became obvious that Mr. O.’s mansion was burning. The local fire fighters didn’t know what to do; it seemed that two months ago, Mr. O. had picked a fight with the Fire Chief and had ordered him off his property permanently! So that morning, the fire company stood by while the mansion burned, protecting neighboring properties from stray sparks. In the end, there was nothing left apart from heaps of smoking rubble.
And what happened to those who had worked for Mr. O.? It developed that they too had become fed up. Evidently, what sparked Mr. O.’s heart attack was a fiery quarrrel with the head of his organization. This man, who had worked for Mr. O. for years, finally could no longer stomach the things Mr. O. was demanding he do. And when the organizational head quit, so did everyone else. Mr. O.’s empire for which he had struggled and cheated and lied and threatened now lay in smoking ruins, just like his mansion.
One day we will all have to stand before God to answer for the way we have lived. While few of us are likely to have done the things Mr. O. did in the story, the fact remains that all of us have sin in our lives. Nobody can say that he or she has always acted from totally clean motives. James warns us that if we ask God for something, we must be sure that we do not turn around and squander God’s resources on our pleasures. We cannot excuse ourselves by saying that we were merely doing what everyone else was doing, or that we only squandered a little bit.
Each and every one of us has a problem, and that problem is called sin. No matter how much we try to explain our motives, we can’t escape our sin nature. Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure—who can understand it?”
So, what is the answer? Is there any way of escape? Praise God, that He has made a way for us by sending Jesus Christ to die for our sins on the cross of Calvary! God has offered us an incredible gift. But we must accept that gift. We must acknowledge our sin nature and pray, confessing our sins and asking for Jesus to save us. Then we must become true disciples, doing the Word and not merely listening to it. It is quite possible to listen to all kinds of messages and watch videos on YouTube but never actually make a commitment. And it is that decision to fully follow Jesus Christ that will save us.
PRAYER: Father God, help us! We know we are stuck with our sin – natures but we don’t know how to escape. Lord, thank you for sending Jesus to die for our sins. Help us to confess those sins to you and to accept Jesus as Savior and Lord. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen!
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