What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 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. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:1-4
I was interviewed for a citywide magazine and asked “what is your guilty pleasure”? I think I said, “watching political news television and playing video poker (not for money). We all have things that give us pleasure. Much of it is by God’s design. However, when all we seek to do is please ourselves, stroke our ego, or add sensation and stimulation to our lives, we may be crossing over into hedonism. Worldly pleasures have a barb, a snare, a price to pay. Jesus said “you are in the world, but not of it”. Paul affirmed that we are “not of this world”. Both got at the principle that James articulates. Seeking out selfish world pleasures leads to great strife in our world and limits the power of prayer.
How have I managed my desire for worldly pleasures? In what ways has God replaced those desires for godly pleasures?
Lord Jesus, as this day begins- I thank you for the sense of contentment there is in living by Your ways and Your will. You alone satisfy. Please help me be a blessing to others today, as I reach out and love them in Your name. On my mind is that precious girl who has been struggling. Would you be very close to her. Also, please protect Joan who has the Coronavirus.
