Submit Yourselves to God
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James 4:1-10
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? 6But 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.
SPIRITUAL PRACTICES
Read Scripture:
Read and complete the O.I.A. for James 4:13-17
If you missed getting a Scripture journal for the book of James and bookmark, you can download them here.
DISCUSSION GUIDE
Complete the O.I.A. framework for this passage from James.
‘X-Ray’ Questions:
What do you seek after, aim for, pursue?
What do you truly value/treasure/spend your time and money on?
In what do you put your trust and hope?
Who or what has the final say in your life?
Prayer:
God,
Help me to submit myself to your will for my life. Help me to surrender my agenda, my timeline, my plan… to yours. Make me aware of my full dependence on you for my future.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
