+DEV+ Unworthy Wants

Date: April 12, 2011 2:01 AM
Topic: +DEV+ Unworthy Wants

Unworthy Wants

"When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures" (James 4:3).
Scripture Focus: James 4:1-10

"Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?" So sang Janice Joplin and sometimes, so go our prayers. James talks straight about desires that aren't worthy of our prayers. He says friendship with the world is hatred towards God. When our eyes light up at the pleasures of the world, we become traitors to the cause of Christ's Kingdom. There's a wonderful antidote for this condition in James 4:10: "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."

The Holy Spirit will give us new desires if we ask Him, and then we can take God's prayer promises to the bank. Psalm 81:10 is a vivid picture of what to expect: "Open wide your mouth and I will fill it." George Mueller ran several orphanages on nothing but prayer and confidence in this verse. He considered it a great invitation from a gracious God, "Now ask much at my hands; look for much from me, bring great requests before me. I am God, and not man, it is the very joy and delight of my heart to give abundantly."

Insight: "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4).