Living Faith | November 29, 2020

 

+ Read Scripture

James 4:1-6

1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

Talk Sheet Questions

  1. Why does James suggest people fight? Have you seen Christians, or supposed Christians, fight like this? (1-2)

  2. What suggestions do you have about prayer that go beyond asking for things that will increase your pleasure? (2-3)

  3. Read Isaiah 54:5-6, Matthew 12:39. Explain why adultery is an appropriate metaphor for a broken relationship with God.

  4. What would someone do if they were a friend of the world? What makes them a friend of the world?

  5. What do you think of when you hear God is jealous?

  6. What might it feel like for God to resist you? Explain.

Prayer

Pray that we will be friends with God (2:23) not a friend of the world.

 
 
Scott Reavely