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Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Prayer to Thirst for God

Lord God, I have tasted your goodness and it has satisfied me, yet it has made me thirst for even more. I am so painfully aware of my need for even more grace than I now enjoy; and even when I do not want more, I am ashamed of my lack of desire. I want you completely, mighty God, and I want to want you even more than I do.

Fill me with longing for you; make me even thirstier. Show me your glory, I pray, so that I may know you always better and better, growing in my faith and love. From your infinite mercy, begin a new work of love within me this moment. Say to my soul, ‘Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.’ And give me grace to rise up and follow you, from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.

~ adapted from a prayer of A. W. Tozer

Thanks for the Animals of Creation

Oh God, I thank thee
for all the creatures you have made,
so perfect in their kind —

great animals like the elephant and rhinoceros,
humorous animals like the camel and the monkey,
friendly ones like the dog and the cat,
working ones like the horse and the ox,
timid ones like the squirrel and the rabbit,
majestic ones like the lion and the tiger,
for birds with their songs.

Oh Lord give me such love for your creation,
that love may cast out fear,
and all the creatures see in man
their priest and friend,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

~ George Appleton

Meditation

[That love may love cast out fear.]

Benediction

And now, as a little child, let me abide in you all this day, oh Christ, so that when you appear I may have confidence and not shrink from you in shame at your coming. For I know that you are righteous, and I am sure that I will be made righteous only by my life in you.

Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.

Good and Evil by Victor Orsel, ca. 1882.

2 Cor. 11:2-3 (NASB)

James 4:4-10 (NASB)

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. 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”?

6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Notes on the Scripture

We have a guest commentary today, a continuing weekly series on the Epistles of James, from Dr. Ken Boa of Atlanta.

If we accept the perspective of Scripture, there are only two courses of action which are open to us. We will either pursue friendship with the world by adopting a set of temporal convictions, or we will pursue friendship with God by adopting eternal convictions. Many believers, however, deceive themselves into thinking there is a third option: the best of both worlds. Usually this translates into a quest for success as the world defines it (prosperity, pleasure, power, prestige), covered by a Christian veneer.

James plainly states that Christian values will never stick to the world's surface. They are as incompatible as light and darkness, wisdom and foolishness, hope and despair, freedom and slavery, life and death. Either the unseen or the seen will be ultimate in our lives; there is no third way.

“For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it” (Rom. 8:24-25).

fter affirming that “friendship with the world is hostility toward God” (Jas. 4:4), James asks, “Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: 'He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us'?” (Jas. 4:5). We serve a God who loves us so much that He has placed His Spirit in us to draw our hearts and minds toward Him. He is jealous for us because rebellion against His purposes is self-destructive.

“But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, 'God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble'” (Jas. 4:6). This is a pivotal point in the chapter. As we saw last week, James refutes the mentality of grabbing by listing five crippling problems in 4:2-4.

Now he states that God gives us much more through the principle of grace than we could ever gain through the practice of grabbing. To the extent that we pursue worldly values, we become proud and self-seeking as we attempt to earn our own way in the world. It is only as we humble ourselves by submitting our plans and ambitions to the Lord that we find real fulfillment in life:

“Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (Jas. 4:7). To befriend the world is to be dominated by Satan, because he is “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; Eph. 2:2). Notice the order in this verse; we cannot effectively resist the devil until we have submitted ourselves to God.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (Jas. 4:8). To draw near to God, we must pull away from the godless practices and values of the world system. When believers are enticed by the lures of pride, power, and pleasure, their actions (“your hands”) and their attitudes (“your hearts”) become polluted and defiled. But there is no sin which carries a Christian beyond the single step of confession for restoration of fellowship with God (1 John 1:9). Similarly, the cure for double-mindedness (wanting God's way and its opposite, the world's way) is the choice of renewing the mind on a daily basis with the truth of Scripture.

Dr. Boa is devoted to a ministry of relational evangelism and discipleship, teaching, writing, and speaking. He holds a B.S. in astronomy from Case Institute of Technology, a Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary, a Ph.D. from New York University, and a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford in England. I highly recommend a visit to his website, KenBoa.org, which is filled with free videos, written commentary, newsletters, etc.

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