Mark Sorensen A couple was arguing over the new car they were going to get. The husband really wanted to get a pickup while the wife wanted a sports car. They argued over this decision for days when, finally, the wife said, “Listen to me, buddy. I want a car that will go from zero to 180 in under four seconds. It better be in the driveway on my birthday or there is going to be trouble.” She walked away and they didn’t talk much the following week.
Her birthday comes and she pulls into the driveway to discover no new sports car. She gets out and she’s fuming mad. She walks into her house and goes back into the bathroom where she’s putting some makeup on when she notices this little box on the bathroom counter. It has a little bow on it and it’s all decorated. She opens it up and there’s a card. She takes the card out and it says, “Happy birthday, honey. Stand on this and it will go from zero to 180 in under four seconds.” It’s a weight scale.
I’m gonna say it: that’s one dumb guy.
Check out these words from the book of James in the New Testament.
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 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. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:1-3)
In this passage, James is addressing the fighting and quarreling that was happening among the early Jesus followers of the day. It seemed that there were desires and coveting that led to some pretty big arguments and fighting over earthly things that, in the long run, held little value. So James calls them out and challenges them to refocus their gaze.
Don’t you just love how a text that’s almost 2,000 years old can still hold such relevance for us in our lives today? It was true for the followers then and it’s certainly true for us today.
So what’s the answer?
Listen to the Spirit.
James would go on in chapter four and say that the Holy Spirit, “whom God has placed within us, watches over us with tender jealousy but He gives us more and more strength to stand up against all such evil longings.”
Remember, it’s the Spirit who gives us strength. Our job? We mustn’t lose our focus and give the devil a foothold in our lives (see Ephesians 4:27).
Let’s keep our eyes on the Lord, let’s continue to let the Spirit speak and move, and let’s continue to live and love as Christ lived and loved among us all!
