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 4:7-10, NIV)
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? (v1): What causes fights and quarrels in our families, businesses, in the Church, comes from desires within us. There is an internal battle we have to fight on a regular basis: we want something and can’t get it so we fight each other.
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, (v2-3): Even as a boy I used to ask God to help me make decisions, and God would always answer. So often people don’t receive what they ask for because they ask with the wrong motives.
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? (v4): Friendship with the world is enmity with God. You cannot serve God and mammon, either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other (Matthew 6:24). If you choose the world, you become an enemy of God. We must be serious about our relationship with God and heed the words of Joshua, ‘Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord’ (Joshua 24:15).
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, (v8): Draw near to God; this is something only you can do. God doesn’t have grandchildren or nieces and nephews, He has children. Just as the prodigal son had to arise and go back home, it is up to us individually to come near to Him. Humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up! Pride comes before a fall when you seek to lift yourself up.
You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes, (v14): Why boast about what you will do? Submit yourself to the Lord’s Will. In the past we often used to say, ‘If the Lord Wills’ - DV, Deo volente. I know from my own life, that God can bring beauty out of the greatest tragedies, but we need to submit to the Will of God, and allow Him to work out His plans and purposes in the world today. I firmly believe, all that happens now, in this life, is preparation for the Coming Kingdom.