My friend James has a few things to say that really “make ya think”. There is a purpose to everything which happens in life and his insight helps to put some of it in a better perspective with what is important. In listening to Him the other night, I wondered about some things in my life, maybe you will too. He said “Where do your wars come from?” My mind went back to the number one hit, war protest song from nineteen seventy. It dared to ask the question “War, what is it good for?” I thought about the agony and loss of war. Then I considered the conflict with our desire for peace, love and freedom. But James was speaking of a different aspect of the battle.
The battle that is without always comes from within. I think that is worth repeating; the battle that is without always comes from within. The wars, the battles, the struggles with tyranny and authority is more than an outward bullets and bombs issue. It is the lusts of the heart which drive us to participate in these costly encounters. Someone desires what we have, or we desire what they have. Whether it is the power of food or resources, we lust after that which is not ours. If we possess it we zealously guard against another having access to it.
Wars are easily defined as conflicts in which people die. Some wars are bigger than others. Conflicts are not always bad. Sometimes they can help us see that we have strayed from the choices wherein we were comfortable and content. Some are unavoidable, some are forced upon you because others are outside of their own contentment. War has consequences. People die in wars. Animals die, cities die, nations die, ideas die and contentment becomes an ancient distant memory.
Have you ever considered the impossibility of war if you and those around you were content? If your neighbors were content would they ever find a need to threaten you? You might well ask who would provide for the needs you have in this life, if you are not willing to fight for them. You might be a bit surprised at the answer.
What if you were to ask God? James says that God gives good gifts to those who ask of Him and he does not hold back at all. Of course it makes sense that good gifts are given to good askers for good asks. In other words God isn’t going to give wonderful generous gifts to folks who would be inclined to selfishly abuse them just to satisfy their own lusts. It would also be wrong to ask for gifts which would take from other seekers of good things just to pile on top of that which you already have an abundance of. Yet each of us understand that most major corporations and powerful individuals operate exactly that way. We call it greed.
We are aghast at the villainy of those who have it in their power to feed hungry children within their reach and would rather throw it in the garbage so they may maintain their power over and profit from the need. It has been speculated that if everyone would give everything they have in order to meet the needs of everyone else, that they would have to hire others to build larger buildings to accommodate every good thing they would receive. James suggests that these problems are not caused by a lack of supply nor an abundance of need but rather a failure to decry the proliferation of greed in our own lives.
When we turn our faces toward the supply of the world we turn our backs on God. God equates us to those who seek the shame and pain of adultery as a way to satisfy their unrealistic fantasies. There is only momentary satisfaction and no contentment in adultery. It only feeds the desire for more of the same and shames the good with which we should be content.
God claims to be the supplier of everything good. When we seek that which He says is not best for us from any other source we are usurping His authority, we are rejecting His love and we are exalting our kingdom over His. There is within us a spirit which lusts after each of God’s blessings with envy. When we see others with a blessing or ability or gift differing from ours that spirit finds its way to the forefront of our lust. Envy destroys kindness, mercy, generosity and a host of sweet spirits within us. What envy does not destroy, lust will slay. What lust does not kill the hardness of the evil heart will certainly take away.
In presenting his Godly wisdom, James warns of this very calamity and seeks to show the antidote to its infection. It is the pride of that spirit born of the flesh which must be subdued. Rather than demanding that we conquer our enemy with our own resources, God resists the pitiful pride we brandish. It is not a magic wand nor a better bomb which is victorious in this battle. But rather it is the marvelous grace which is freely given to the humble and contrite. By submitting our desires, our will, even our very lives to the one who is all powerful, we experience the enabling grace to resist the devil and all of His evil.
The scriptures declare in several places the marvel that God would even consider the desperate requests of ‘man the creature’ who fails to worship the Creator as they should. “What is man that God is mindful of him?”
His three fold remedy is for us to submit to Him, Accept His wisdom, and believe His Word. Then draw near to His heart, His ways, His thoughts, and thirdly, to humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. With all of this proper posturing, positioning and pleading you will obtain no strength, no covering and not a single useable skill to master the evil within. But what He will do is lift you up. He will lift you beyond the clutches which prevent you from walking freely in love before Him. His Holy Spirit will make the consideration of lesser things so unattractive that your eyes will behold no evil thing. Your tongue will produce no selfish suggestion, your heart will conceive no detriment toward any who come under the influence of your life fulfilled by His grace.
James has many wise thoughts to pass along. He has been a good friend. He helps me to understand the long and the short of it. Lust is the shortcut to having all which is empty of any real fulfillment. Love is the long pathway of contentment for those who will obediently humble themselves before the mighty God of the universe. Long hours of self-inflicted struggles to master my own heart will always come up short. While mere moments of heart felt contrite prayers yielding to His Lordship, set my feet on solid ground and establish for me a great benefit by His grace. To declare that I need Him every hour is not news to Him. The battle belongs to the Lord and so does my obedience, love, adoration and all else He desires of me.