Humility receives grace, pride receives opposition.

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 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. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.  4 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. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:  “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

(James 1:1-6)

What causes temptation and wrong doing?  We will face many trials and temptations in our life and all too often we may find ourselves yielding to and doing wrong.  To conquer our trials and temptations we have to understand the cause.  What is the cause of temptation and wrong doing? It is Evil Desire that wars within us.

Our bodies are a battlefield of want and lustful desire. Our flesh yearns after something and lust is very difficult to bring completely under control.  We can keep ourselves under control in the unacceptable big sins: vengeance or murder, but we tend to lose control in the more acceptable little sins: over eating, selfishness, materialism, hoarding, looking when we should not look.

The end result of lust or our desires is fighting or war.  We quarrel with our selves or we quarrel with each other.  The greatest need that man has is peace.  When we look at the world we find anything but peace because it is our desires that explodes into evil and destructive behavior.

There is a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer that says:

"Instead of trusting the unseen, we prefer the tangible fruits of desire. ...However no sacrifice is too great if it enables us to conquer a lust, which cuts us off from Jesus. ...When you have made your eye the instrument of impurity, you cannot see God with it."

Bonhoeffer made the sacrifice of which he wrote. Bonhoeffer never got to experience the tangible fruits of desire; he died in the Holocaust, still trusting the unseen."

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1).

What causes temptation and wrong doing -It is not asking God or trusting God or asking with the wrong motive.

We want something, but we don’t get it.  We want a lot of things in this world.  We may want food which is good we need it to survive, but if we want an excessive amount of food that is not good.  Food can go from productive and healthy to destructive and unhealthy.  That is the point of the verse here.

There is a good reason why a lot of people in this world don’t have.  It is because they did not plan well or they ask with the wrong motives.  In our world today so many minds are focused only on what they want that they have completely abandoned the reality of the many needed steps to get what they want.  They want instant gratification and will do whatever they have to get what they want now: lie, cheat, steal or kill and are willing to harm or ruin the lives of many, to get instant gratification and satisfy their worldly pleasures.

It is unfortunate, but many people misunderstand what they are craving for.  Our deepest cravings are spiritual.  It is the spiritual craving that eats away at us.  The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life confuses us. Most will learn that spiritual cravings cannot be satisfied with material things. Physical things leave us only wanting more.  Spiritual craving can only be satisfied by the Spirit of God.  Our want is never going to be satisfied apart from God.  

We are not able to control our desires without the presence and power of God.  We corrupt our minds, thoughts, and bodies and we hurt, disrupt, and destroy others by our uncontrolled desires and lust. It is our uncontrolled desires and lusts that are carrying us to the grave.  We must come to realize that the only escape, the only victory over the corruption of desires and lusts—is God.

We must trust God and call upon God.   We must learn to commune and fellowship with God—to walk in Him, live and move in Him, seeking and asking His opinion, will, and help every step of every day. This is what God wants from all of us.

So what is our cure for temptation and wrongdoing? There are two cures that we find in the final two verse of this passage.

First we must know that the Spirit of God yearns over us with jealousy at all times and especially when we are confronted by temptation and we do wrong. We must think about this and know this.  If we turn away from Christ and turn to the world, if we do wrong, the Spirit does not cast us away.  He longs for us with a deep intense jealousy to return to Christ.

God loves the believer no matter how we fall or fail.  When we understand this we know the first great cure for temptation and wrongdoing.  It is easier to repent and return to God when you know God still loves you despite what you may have done.  Love will attract and pull a believer back to God.  

We also must know that God gives the humble believer grace.  This is the glorious gospel: God gives grace and more grace to the humble. The person who turns to God, and away from the world and his wrongdoing will receive all the grace from God he will ever need and then some. God will look after and care for him

We should always remember that God meeting our needs is not automatic.  If a person is proud—if he is haughty, and rebellious against God—God resists the person.  God wants to pour His grace out upon the person, but if the person hardens himself and rebels against God and continues to live on in his sin, God has no choice. God is shut out of the person's life; therefore, grace is rejected. God can do nothing for the person.

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”   Proverbs 3:34

My prayer for you is that these words take root in your heart and draw you nearer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.   Amen.

Pastor Rick Gault

Kings Creek Union Chapel.