Come Near To God And
He Will Come Near To You
What
causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that
battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you
cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you
do not ask God. When you ask, you do not
receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on
your pleasures.
You adulterous
people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God?
Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of
God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for
the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is
why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
Submit yourselves,
then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and
he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts,
you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and
your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
James 4:1-10
There
is a cost to war, no only in dollars, but in lives changed forever, and trust
in our way of life. God does not advocate war, but in our own selfish pursuits,
we sometimes battle without considering the price exacted on our witness to the
world or our relationships with one another.
If we
are to represent the Prince of Peace in our world, believers need to stop
fighting with one another and practice peace.
When Christians are at peace with one another,
the world can
more clearly see the Prince of Peace.
Our Daily Bread –