Please be in prayer for the family of Bill Higginbotham (Barbara
McGinney's Father) who went home to be with his Lord this past Tuesday night.
Scripture
James 4:1-12 (ESV)
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not
this, that your passions are at war within you? [2] You desire and do not have,
so you murder. You covet 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 wrongly, to spend it on your passions. [4] You adulterous people! Do you
not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever
wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. [5] Or do you
suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously
over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"? [6] But he gives more
grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the
humble." [7] Submit yourselves 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, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. [9] Be
wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your
joy to gloom. [10] Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
[11] Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks
against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges
the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. [12] There is only one lawgiver and judge, he
who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Questions for Reflection
1. What do families and friends commonly fight about?
2. What is the root cause of fights and quarrels between people? (4:1-3)
3. Why don’t people have what they want? (4:2)
4. Why doesn’t God give some people what they ask for? (4:3)
5. What does friendship with the world do to our relationship with God? (4:4)
6. When does God give us grace? (4:6)
7. How did James describe the way we should come to God? (4:7-10)
8. What do most people think God wants from them?
9. What do we want from God most of the time?
10. Why do we hesitate to give our lives to God?
