James 4:1-3
1What 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,
1What 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.
Reflection
Our scripture today reminds us that idols evolve out of our desires and eventually lead to conflict. Some desires are inherently wrong, like a desire to kill your neighbor or to cheat on your wife, but some desires are simply amoral, meaning that they are neither good or evil. These desires whether amoral or immoral, when unmet, have the capability to form into an idol. How do you think our unmet desires can form an idol in our heart? Can you think of an unmet desire in your life?
