January -13 – Submit to God

Sunday School Lesson

January 13

Submit to God

 

Devotional Reading: Proverbs 3:27–35

Background Scripture: James 4:1–10

 

James 4:1–10

1. From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

 

2. Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

 

3. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

 

4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

 

5. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?

 

6. But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

 

7. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

 

8. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanseyour hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

 

9. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

 

10. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

 

Key Verse

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

—James 4:8

Lesson Aims

After participating in this lesson, each learner will be able to:

 

1. Summarize James’s view on pride.

 

2. Explain why pride and humility are opposite realities.

 

3. Pray a prayer of humility and surrender that reflects his or her relationship with God.

 

HOW TO SAY IT

epitaph	eh-puh-taf.
Hosea	Ho-zay-uh.
Josephus	Jo-see-fus.

Introduction

1. Pride and Arrogance

We are told that pride is an essential element to making things better. We should have school pride, community pride, and personal pride.

In the Bible, however, pride is often seen as a corrosive personality trait, something to be avoided. What the Bible means by pride (when seen negatively) is similar to boastful arrogance (James 4:16). It can also be likened to vanity or vainglory, a distorted sense of one’s value and importance in the world (Philippians 2:3). Pride can even be related to envy, covetousness, or greed—the belief that your desires are more important than those of others (Romans 1:29).

Those to whom James wrote his letter apparently had problems with pride; they lacked humility. Many Christians and churches today suffer the same malady, so James’s words are timely and vital to us.

1. Lesson Context

There are at least four and possibly five men by the name of James in the New Testament. The one who wrote the book of the New Testament that bears his name was the brother of Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3).

James was not a disciple of Jesus during His ministry (John 7:5), but after the resurrection he became a believer (Acts 1:14) and a leader in the Jerusalem church (Acts 15:13; Galatians 1:19). Yet James humbly describes himself as a “servant of God” (James 1:1), seemingly reluctant to use his family credentials.

We do not know when the letter of James was written. The Jewish historian Josephus (AD 37–100) notes his death about AD 62 at the hands of Jewish opponents in Jerusalem. This makes it likely the book was written sometime in the AD 50s, thus reflecting an early stage in the history of the first-century church.

The recipients of the letter are evidently Jewish believers, as indicated by the reference to the scattered “twelve tribes” (James 1:1). Perhaps they were members of the original church in Jerusalem who were forced to flee due to the persecution spawned by Stephen’s martyrdom and thus were no longer centered in one location (Acts 11:19). It would be natural for James, were he their former spiritual leader, to encourage them in the midst of their trials (James 1:2–4, 12; 5:7–11).

James held very high expectations for his readers. He specifically wanted them to tone down the rivalries in their communities, some of which involved conflicts between rich and poor (James 2:5–7). This fits well with the theme of humility to which James turns in chapter 4.

1. War with Covetousness

(James 4:1–3)

1. The Battle Within (vv. 1, 2a)
2. From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

 

James begins this section with tough language, noting the internal disputes within his addressees’ fellowships. There are wars and fightings. The first term implies strong adversarial relationships, a word used more often in a military sense to signify battles between armies. The second term has the sense of verbal spats, nasty exchanges between rivals (compare Titus 3:9).

James points to the root cause of these troubles: your lusts that war in your members. He is not referring to the membership of the church, but the parts (“members”) of the human body. This battle originates internally, inside the hearts of the combatants. Church fights often result from personal, individual issues, from the strong-willed individual who has selfish motives and tolerates no other opinions. Rather than forbid fighting, James goes after the root causes behind these struggles.

 

2a. Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain.

 

The evil, lustful desires of some adversaries are so strong that their outcome might be murder, although the use of kill may be figurative for hate (compare Matthew 5:21, 22; 1 John 3:15). Whether the animosity among believers has escalated to the point of murder, which is unlikely, James’s warning is on target. This is a dangerous and regrettable situation.

1. The Battle of Prayer (vv. 2b, 3)

2b, 3. Ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

 

James shifts his focus from the contentious and destructive desires of the adversaries to another aspect of the problem: lack of prayer. The readers’ personal rivalries are not getting them what they want. So they fight over a pie without enough pieces to satisfy everyone. We can interpret this to mean that envy and greed are the root problem. This might indicate quarrels over the funds of the congregation. Such battles can be the nastiest of all church fights.

James teaches them that the underlying problem is to be found in their prayer practices. Their prayer requests are amiss, reflecting envy and jealousy. Their requests in prayer are for things that they can consume to satisfy their lusts.

God will not honor prayers made from evil desires or selfish motives. To pray correctly, effectively, means the selfishness that is fueling the fighting must be quelled. Aligning prayers with the will of God will remove the motives tearing apart their community.

 

What Do You Think? What can you do to make your prayers more effective?   Digging Deeper In what ways, if any, do Jeremiah 7:16; 11:14; 14:11; and 1 John 5:16b help inform your answer?

1. War with Pride

(James 4:4–6)

1. Friends with the World (v. 4)
2. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

 

James moves from conflict caused by envy to another problem: pride. Just as we should not be at war with fellow church members, we must be at war with the pride in our own souls.

James begins this line of thought by introducing a stark choice: his readers must choose between friendship with the things of the world and friendship with God. They cannot have both. If they choose the world, they choose to be the enemy of God.

Is James calling for a radical, thoroughgoing purge of everything “worldly” from our lives? Should we withdraw into separate communities so that we have no worldly temptations to entice us? Some believers have understood the Christian life to be a call for such separation, but this does not seem to be James’s intention.

James begins this verse with an epitaph for those who have fallen into conflict: they are adulterers and adulteresses. Although it is possible that the churches James addressed were wracked with sexual immorality, this does not seem to be the problem (although see James 2:11). Instead, James uses “adultery” in a way common for the prophets of the Old Testament. They often used adultery as a metaphor for unfaithful Israel, the bride of the Lord (see Hosea 1:2). For James, to choose the world over God is to commit spiritual adultery.

This verse is subject to misuse and misinterpretation. Christians will find it difficult to win the world for Christ if they withdraw from the world completely. Community participation and having non-Christian friends and neighbors is not spiritual adultery. The danger lies in allowing one’s love for God to be eclipsed by one’s love for the world. Our loyalty and commitment must be to God and to Him alone.

 

1. Grace for the Humble (vv. 5, 6)

5a. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain.

 

James loves the Word of God and is a master of using it to add context and authority to his teaching. First, he asks the readers if they think the scripture speaks in vain. No faithful Christian of Jewish descent would doubt the efficacy of Scripture, for it speaks with the power of God behind it (Isaiah 55:10, 11; compare John 10:35).

 

5b. The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?

 

It is unclear what Scripture James now refers to. Some students see general references to Genesis 2:7; Exodus 20:5; and/or Proverbs 14:30. At any rate, James asks if the readers think the spirit God has caused to dwell within them is naturally prone to envy. Was God negligent or inept in creating us? As with the first question, the answer is a clear no. God did not make men and women to be driven by envy, thereby destroying the unity of the church.

 

6. But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

 

James answers the second question and then provides a Scripture quotation. The possibility of God’s misbegotten making of us as designed to be controlled by envy is countered by James’s assertion that God has given us grace. We are vessels of grace, not envy. Our envy and pride issues do not have their source with the Lord. Our problem cannot be pinned on God, for He has shown more than enough grace and mercy to us to make our envy obsessions seem out of place.

James’s choice for Scripture, Proverbs 3:34, is well known to his readers (compare 1 Peter 5:5). God’s resistance to pride and prideful people is a theme in Jewish teaching. Human pride kindles the wrath of God (see 2 Chronicles 32:24–26; Job 40:11). Pride is self-exalting, but only the Lord is to be exalted (Isaiah 2:17).

The flip side of the coin is that while God brings down the proud, He does not ignore the humble. Those who lack the pride that God abhors will be given the sustaining grace of the Lord to get them through their difficult circumstances.

Thus does James condemn the most worldly thing of all: pride. Pride is warped self-love. Pride is a type of self-worship, allowing our personal selves to become idols. This is every bit as much spiritual adultery as the love of money or power. God does not call us to hate ourselves, but our sense of self-worth has limits.

 

Escaping From Pride

Throughout history, the church has seen numerous movements intended to help its members avoid the allure of the world. Some of these movements become cultish as they begin controlling their adherents’ lives in terms of dictating employment, living arrangements, friendships, etc.

I have had friends who became part of such groups. In every case, the group started with good intentions: a desire to provide more fellowship, better (or more relevant) biblical teaching, and an escape from prior experiences in churches that were lacking in Christian love and evangelistic spirit. In each case, I observed some members exhibiting what seemed to be inappropriately high levels of satisfaction with how they were “doing church” compared with the fellowships from which they came. From what James says, we might even question whether their satisfaction bordered on pride.

How do we escape from the insidious, ever-tightening grip of pride when we are trying so hard to follow the Lord? As James reminds us, we can escape pride only by recognizing we are saved by God’s grace. We are not saved by how much better we are than others at figuring out how to live the Christian life. See also Ephesians 2:8, 9.

—C. R. B.

What Do You Think? How can we successfully control our pride without losing self-confidence in the process?   Digging Deeper How do 2 Corinthians 7:4; 8:24; and Galatians 6:3, 4 influence your attitude about the type of pride you may have?

III. War with the Devil

(James 4:7–10)

1. Submission to God (vv. 7, 8)

7a. Submit yourselves therefore to God.

 

James moves into a writing style that has often drawn comparisons with the book of Proverbs: short, pithy statements that stand well on their own.

He begins with a command: Submit … to God. This is the opposite of pride. Pride is self-exalting. Submission is self-lowering, self-yielding, self-denying. The word James employs has a military background, used to describe the submission of a soldier to his superior officer. It means you take orders from someone higher, and that when you receive an order, you obey it.

What Do You Think? Considering Jesus’ submission in Luke 22:42, what plan can you make to overcome the conflict between pride and submission?   Digging Deeper What role should prayer play in overcoming this conflict?

7b. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

 

The other side of our submission to God is our resistance to the devil. There is another who seeks to be our master, our partner in spiritual adultery. James again uses the word resist, which was used in the previous verse to characterize God’s actions toward the proud. Here it is the opposite of submit.Resistance to the devil is refusal to submit to his temptations or his influence.

This command comes with a promise. The devil can be a persistent adversary, but James promises that if we resist him, he will abandon us as a target. We must remember that while the devil is a powerful spiritual being, he is not all-powerful or in any way equal to God. As a created being, his power and influence are limited and must be employed strategically. When we keep resisting the devil, he will redeploy his evil assets to a more productive target.

What Do You Think? What strategies you can recommend to resist the devil?   Digging Deeper In that regard, which techniques of Jesus’ resistance of the devil in Matthew 4:1–11 and Luke 4:1–13 serve as a model for you? In what ways does it not? Why?

8. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

 

The previous verse tells us that our lives are best lived when we are in submission to God and resist the devil. James returns to our relationship with the Lord, refining his command to submit and offering a promise for those who do so. If we draw nigh to God, James promises us that God will meet us. We are reminded of Jesus’ words, “Seek, and ye shall find” (Matthew 7:7). God is already near to us and meets us when we seek Him (see Lamentations 3:57).

This is the opposite of the devil, who flees when we resist him. God will never flee, even if we neglect our relationship with Him.

How do we draw near to the Lord? The rest of the verse gives us these directives: we must have deeds that honor God (clean hands), and we must have the proper commitment to Him (pure hearts). These qualities define the proper worshipper of the Lord.

In Psalm 24:3, 4, the clean hands and pure heart are associated with the one who refuses to worship idols, akin to the resisting of Satan for James. Worship is to focus on God and no other. There can be no double-minded approach to worship. We must worship “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23, 24).

 

Clean Hands

I was recently in a doctor’s consultation room in which a sign was prominently displayed regarding how to wash hands. It read something like this:

1. Wet hands with water
2. Apply enough soap to cover hands
3. Rub hands palm-to-palm
4. Rub hands on top of each other, interlacing fingers
5. Rub palm-to-palm with fingers interlaced
6. Interlock fingers
7. Rub with back of fingers in opposing palms
8. Twist thumbs with opposing fingers
9. Rub palms in a circle with opposing fingers
10. Rinse hands
11. Dry hands with a single-use towel
12. Use towel to turn off faucet

Whew! Aren’t you glad Mom didn’t go into that much detail? The medical profession treats cleanliness seriously (as the sign in the doctor’s office indicates), especially in flu season. Doesn’t it make even more sense to be serious about cleansing ourselves spiritually?

Given the moral pollution of our world, how should we go about getting the clean hands of which James writes?

—C. R. B.

1. Lifting by God (vv. 9, 10)

9, 10a. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord.

 

James presents this cleansing of the heart in terms associated with repentance. When we repent, we do not laugh and rejoice. We have a deep sorrow that brings mourning and a heavy heart. Times of repentance are not celebrations. They are funerals in which we put our pride to death, smother our envy, and swallow our stubbornness. To jest about sin or wink at wickedness is contrary to any sense of repentance. This is a root problem among James’s readers. They have become comfortable with sin among their members and have failed to repent.

Repentance is related to self-humbling. When we repent, we do not justify our wrongs, but admit them. Admission of wrongdoing is never easy, and some people seem nearly incapable of this simple act, preferring denial or excuses instead. We should notice that James is not talking about being humbled by other people or unfortunate events. He advises us to humble ourselves, to lose our pride and arrogance.

 

What Do You Think? What practices can you adopt to ensure you don’t become comfortable with sin?   Digging Deeper Considering Matthew 7:1–3, how can a church encourage its members to live godly lives without such encouragement becoming legalistic?

10b. And he shall lift you up.

 

That command comes with a promise too. Our self-humbling will not go unnoticed by God. He will liftus up. This has been connected by some to events in our lives, as if to say, “If you deny yourself, God will reward you with happiness, material blessings, and a better position in life.” This may be, but it is not what James intends here. The “lifting up” is to rescue our souls from the mourning and weeping we have entered as an act of repentance.

When we truly repent, God lifts our hearts by forgiving us and restoring our joy (Psalm 51:12). We do not humble ourselves to be rewarded, but our humility will be blessed by the Lord—an oft-repeated principle in the Bible (Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; 1 Peter 5:6).

Selfish pride and arrogance risk everything if they characterize our relationship with God. Pride of comparison falls flat when applied to us versus the Lord. We can never compete with the one who created the universe. The Bible teaches that God’s intolerance for human pride is consistent and unyielding (see Proverbs 8:13; Isaiah 13:11). Only by laying aside our arrogance are we fully able to be lifted up by the Lord.

 

Conclusion

1. Proudly Humble

Can you imagine a humility contest in your church? If we are told to practice humility, shouldn’t we honor the humblest among us? This could include nominations and campaign-style speeches where candidates tout their humility credentials to garner votes from the congregation. Then we could be proud of our humbleness. We could crown the king and queen of humility, the humblest people in our church!

This is ridiculous, of course. Humility and pride are strange bedfellows indeed. Humility, by its nature, is a private act, a personal practice. Drawing attention to our humility is like a peacock strutting after its tail feathers have been plucked.

How can we practice humility? Here are some suggestions. First, meditate on the greatness of God. Realizing the vast expanse of God’s creation—its beauty and intricate design—should make you feel very small by comparison.

Second, remember the undeserved love God has lavished upon you. Paul said that while we were still sinners, enemies of God, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6–11). Our love is almost always tinged with selfishness, but God’s love never is. His great love outshines anything we can claim (see Ephesians 2:4, 5).

Third, let us find ways to serve that are unrecognized. I recently helped serve a meal at a homeless shelter. I made some new friends and received a hearty “Thank you,” but I wasn’t paid or otherwise rewarded. The people I served were often unresponsive and ungrateful, even greedy. I stayed to help clean the kitchen, and that was nasty work. I got a good dose of humility, remembering that there are those who do these jobs every day.

God is great. God is loving. I serve God by serving others. These are lessons of humility that will serve us well. May we lay down our crowns, our claims to greatness—and pick up our crosses, our submission to God’s will, so that God may lift us up in His perfect timing.

1. Prayer

Lord God, may we humble ourselves with sincere love for You. Knock the pride out of us. Let us love others without guile. We pray in the name of the one who humbled himself on the cross. Amen.

1. Thought to Remember

Our job is humility. God’s job is lifting us up.

 

 

KID’S CORNER

How to Receive More Grace

January 13, 2019

James 4:1-10

 

 

James 4:1-10

(James 4:1) What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?

James describes the ways of “this world,” of the people “who focus on achieving and obtaining what” this world” has to offer instead of what the next world offers through faith in Jesus Christ. Unhappily, too many people in the church bring their “this world” commitment and focus with them into the church. Ruled by their evil desires and passions and with internal and external conflicts these types of people cause quarrels and fights with each other and others and bring disruption into the church.

(James 4:2) You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

In most cases, those in the church who are still in love with the practices and possessions of “this world” desire what they should not practice or possess; therefore, they may murder someone or cheat or tell lies or try to assassinate someone’s character to get what they want. Some covet what another possesses, because there is no one or no other thing like what they want, and they will try anything to get what they want, if they cannot get what they want in legal ways. The worldly-minded in the church do not ask another or ask God to give them what they want—perhaps knowing that neither the church nor God would approve of what they desire.

(James 4:3) You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

If your passions, emotions, and selfish desires rule you instead of love for God and others, and you ask God for something that is bad, God knows it would harm you and others; so, you will not receive what you want from God. For example, if you ask for a snake when you should be asking for your daily bread; then, a merciful God will not give you what you ask.

(James 4:4) You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

James describes the effect when one or more many people in the church are not obeying the commandments of Jesus. They are not loving God and others in word and deed as Jesus taught and exemplified. They are not growing in grace; therefore, neither they nor those around them enjoy peace with them. They are adulterous spiritually if not also physically, because instead of loving God and others as God has commanded, they love the things of this world and themselves supremely. They are enemies of God when they try to make friendship with “this world” to enjoy what their immoral passions crave. For example, Jesus said we cannot love both God and money. If we love money or anything else more than God, we will eventually come to hate God (see Matthew 6:24).

(James 4:5) Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?

God made our human spirit to indwell our physical bodies. God sends His Holy Spirit into us as believers in Christ to have communion, fellowship, and friendship with us through our spirit. When we prefer friendship and fellowship with the world, so our passions can be satiated by the things and people of this world, we offend God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. We are refusing to let the Word of God dwell in us richly and the Spirit of God to help us change and transform our lives into the image of Christ.

(James 4:6) But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”

If we find ourselves slavishly following our passions and emotions (our flesh) as James describes, the promise from Scripture is “God gives more grace,” but the condition to receive more grace involves expressing true humility before God. We must bow before the Lord God morally and spiritually, confess our sins to God, repent (turn from) all our sins, turn to Jesus, and ask Jesus for His power to live as His friend and in friendship with all heaven; then, Jesus will give us more grace to overcome our temptations from the world, the flesh, and the devil.

(James 4:7) Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Previously, even when in the church, people can be so in love with “this world” and themselves that they can become enemies of God and fight with God and His people. The solution to this sinful way of living is to submit to God, bow down before God, and give God your heart in total allegiance to serve God in Christ supremely. Then, the war will turn from warring against God to warring against the devil and our own sinful passions. To resist the devil involves putting on the full armor of God; then, the devil will flee from us; thereby, we will have peace with God and peace within ourselves (see Ephesians 6:10-18).

(James 4:8) Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Having submitted ourselves once and for all to God, we may need to submit ourselves to God repeatedly when tempted to follow our passions once again. Having submitted ourselves to God, our daily practice and often our moment-by-moment practice will become drawing near to God and God’s drawing near to us as our Friend and Savior. Whether we feel God is near or not, God is near because He has promised to draw near to those who draw near to Him. Our thought life often extends to our outward life of misusing our hands and other parts of our bodies, so we must resolve to obey the Lord and turn from all sin. Having tried to love the world and love the Lord simultaneously (thus being double-minded), we must commit our hearts, our mind, and our will to love God supremely and others as the Lord commanded. We can pray for the Holy Spirit to help us do this daily.

(James 4:9) Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.

James does not give people a mechanical formula to follow to be right with God. Repentance is not simply saying to God that we are sorry we have hurt His feelings. Rather, when we truly understand that we have been active enemies and at war against our holy, loving, just, merciful, and gracious God, we are inwardly prompted to feel wretched, mourn, and weep. Previously, our laughter and joy had been from the pleasures we derived as we satisfied our passions and desires in “this world,” but at some point, by the grace of God and the influence of our loving Savior Jesus Christ, satisfying our passions brought us so much grief that we turned to God in Christ for salvation. When Jesus saves us, we begin walking in holiness, truth, and love, and we cease being friends with the world, the flesh, and the devil.

(James 4:10) Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

The world’s way of thinking involves self-seeking and desiring “this world’s” honors. The world’s way is to be of the world and exalted in the world by the world. As Christians, we turn from selfishness and self-seeking to wanting to live humbly before our God when and how the Lord wants us to live; then, He will lift us up where He wants us to be here and in eternity; furthermore, God will be exalted! We do not seek the glory that belongs to God alone. We do not seek loving fellowship with God in Christ in order to be exalted, but because we love God in Christ so much that loving fellowship with God throughout eternity and our exalting God as God deserves forever is one of the goals of our repentance and faith in Jesus.

 

 

How to Receive More Grace

January 13, 2019

James 4:1-10

 

“But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” (James 4:6).

James tells us why everyone needs more grace. Even as believers in Christ, we sometimes still have cravings and passions within us that rob us of our peace by making war within us. The war within us then spills out and harms others, even those we love. Some crave something so badly that if they cannot have it, they engage in disputes and conflicts. Sadly, James recognized that some, even in the church, could let their ruling passions lead them to commit murder (or at least lie about someone to assassinate their character). When some pray, James wrote, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3). Hence, we need more grace and power to overcome our temptations to pray wrongly and do wrongly. We need more grace to give us peace within, peace with God, and peace with others. When we feel cravings and conflicts within us striving for mastery over us, our praying the Serenity Prayer can open the door to our receiving more grace from God: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.” In addition to praying the Serenity Prayer, we need to humble ourselves to receive the grace we need. James wrote that recognizing our wrongs should move us to mourn, weep, and seek grace to help us make the changes we need to make. When we draw near to God, God will draw near to us, and He will lift us up and help us purify our hearts.

 

Thinking Further

How to Receive More Grace

January 13, 2019

James 4:1-10

Name __________________________

 

1. What is one cause of troubles in the church?

 

 

2. Why can coveting lead to fighting and quarrelling?

 

 

3. Why doesn’t God give us everything we ask?

 

 

4. What does a friend of the world make himself?

 

 

5. What does James tell sinners inside and outside the church to do?

 

 

Discussion and Thinking Further

 

1. What is one cause of troubles in the church? Some people bring “this world’s” passions and evil desires into the church with them, and these passions and desires stir up a war within them and with others.

 

2. Why can coveting lead to fighting and quarrelling? It is fine to desire a good thing similar to what someone else has and use lawful means to acquire that good thing (perhaps buying it or buying something like it). Coveting involves wanting something that someone else has, perhaps because there is no one or nothing similar, and thinking of unlawful means of having it. Coveting can lead to murder and theft.

 

3. Why doesn’t God give us everything we ask? Not everything is good for us to have. God will not give us bad things (or perhaps even good things) just to satisfy our selfish, self-centered desires. God will not give us what would hurt us and/or others. God might give us something to teach us a lesson that we truly need to learn.

 

4. What does a friend of the world make himself? An enemy of God.

 

5. What does James tell sinners inside and outside the church to do? (James 4:7) Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:8) Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you doubleminded. (James 4:9) Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. (James 4:10) Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

 

Word Search

How to Receive More Grace

January 13, 2019

James 4:1-10

Name __________________________

 

E O U S L E R R A U Q R N T V

R V D T C Y N W T E P Y Q A M

I M B M R S G D N M L M L Y Q

S T E G U M J Q X Y F B G O D

E Z N S E A S Z L R J O M I M

D L E D F I G H T S B Y X U C

Q J K U P D P K G T M L H O H

A W Q X T A W E A Q A G I V C

R E D R U M S I Y I S N W A R

I U X I T R N S P A K O Y S J

F Z W E M S Y M I U M R Z A D

J C V O F Q K P N O I W V H B

A O E D R P I H S D N E I R F

C K I M S L R C W J A S K P D

E A R O T H D M E N M I T Y H

 

Quarrels

Fights

Passions

War

Desire

Murder

Covet

Obtain

Ask

Wrongly

Friendship

World

Enmity

God

Humble

 

True and False Test

How to Receive More Grace

January 13, 2019

James 4:1-10

Name __________________________

 

Circle the true or false answers. Correct the false statements by restating them.

1. When our passions are at war within us, we are prone to cause quarrels and fights. True or False

 

2. It is okay to covet to obtain, but not murder to obtain. True or False

 

3. We do not receive from God what we want to spend on our passions.

True or False

 

4. Christians should strive to become friends with the world and friends

with God in order to become double-minded. True or False

 

5. Friendship with the world is enmity with God, and a friend of the world

makes himself an enemy of God. True or False

 

6. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. True or False

 

7. If we resist the devil, it will hit us harder and harder. True or False

 

8. If we draw near to God, and he will draw near to us. True or False

 

9. We should never worry or allow our laughter to be turned to mourning or our joy to gloom. True or False

 

10. Everyone should submit themselves to God, cleanse their hands, and

purify their hearts. True or False

 

True and False Test Answers

 

1. True
2. False
3. True
4. False
5. True
6. True
7. False
8. True
9. False

      10.True

 

 

Prayer

Lord God, may we humble ourselves with sincere love for You. Knock the pride out of us. Let us love others without guile. We pray in the name of the one who humbled himself on the cross. Amen.