Topic: Conflicts
Conflict is everywhere. Just turn on the news. It happens on a global, national and local scale. We encounter conflict at work, in our communities, in our homes and even in our churches. One minute two children will be sitting next to each other happily playing with their toys. The next minute one of them will try to take the other one's toy away. If they don't get their way, they are fully prepared to turn this tug of war into an all-out battle.
Our sinful nature wants something someone else has that we don't have and it becomes covetousness. That desire to get what others have causes us frustration, dissatisfaction and disappointment. This eventually turns into a conflict. We want more and when we don't get it, the inner turmoil increases and eventually there is conflict.
Take a moment and read James 4:1-12.
Can you see that the ultimate source of many of our struggles is neither our inner turmoil nor our visible conflict with others? The ultimate source of many of our struggles is the conflict we are having with God. If we trusted God, we would ask Him for what we need and we would be happy to trust Him for what He provides.
But what happens if we don't come to God? We have inner conflict that becomes conflict with others. James tells us that to break this endless cycle, we must learn to trust God enough to ask Him for what we need. Take your needs and concerns to God in prayer. As Christians, we should have already learned that, right?
James didn't mince words by using the phrase “adulterous people” in verse 4. He's showing us how severe this issue of covetousness is. We're being told that covetousness doesn't have any place within Godly boundaries. If you think about it, covetousness and adultery share something in common. They both impact the lives of innocent people. The conflicts caused by covetousness destroy others, just like adulterous affairs hurt innocent people.
Sin is what converts healthy drives into destructive passions. This desire for always wanting more or wanting what someone else has is a lot like cancer. Covetousness destroys what is good and healthy around it and does not stop until everything is gone. So, James is warning us to pay close attention to our desire to want more than what God has given us. And James was very serious in what he was saying.
The solution to all this is to stop submitting to the appetite of our sin nature and begin submitting to God by depending on Him for our needs.
See you Sunday!
Dr. Scott Kallem