Keep me in Your will...

James 4:1-10
1"Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. 3Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously?" 6But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble." 7Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you doubleminded. 9Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up."


In our ladies prayer group last week I told Ms. Dawn it's sad because a lot of times when we pray we are expecting an answer right now. When we think like this it's almost like we are thinking of God as a genie in a bottle. Why do we do this? God is GOD. Because He is so awesome He doesn't have to answer to us. If we are asking HIM to answer to us it's like we are down grading Him. He is not our servant we are to serve Him. James 4 is a very good commandment from God. I think it's like God is saying "you big dummy you were wondering why all of these things are happening to you but you aren't praying for direction and guidance and if you are praying you are only praying for answers to please you." Are we praying because we really want to be closer to God or are we praying just so we will get the answers we want? Hmm that's tough I know. We are human and it's easy to be selfish but what's really our purpose on earth? Our purpose is to serve and glorify God, our Creator, and tell others about Him. God will not answer yes to something that is not His will, so pray for God's will. If we aren't in His will where are we? My mom's favorite song that I sing in church is Keep Me In Your Will. It says Lord keep me in Your will so I won't be in Your way! That's just what we are if we aren't in His will we are in His way. I love verses 7-10 God promises us these things if we stand on His promises and humble ourselves to Him! Verse 9 is saying when a believer has fallen into sin it should upset us. We should get to a point where "laughter and joy" are set aside and we should reflect on the sin and confess. Christians should never laugh at sin. The study bible I'm studying in today says "A Christian's sorrow leads to repentance; repentance leads to forgiveness, and forgiveness leads to true joy over one's reconciliation with God." That's awesome if you ask me. So my goal for this week and every week is to pray for God's will not mine. I want to stand on His promises! And eventhough we don't deserve them His rewards are GREAT if we do this!