http://bible.com/events/48832631
Church of the Nazarene
James and the Art of the Ask
God does not help those who help themselves. He helps those who ask Him (and trust Him).
-“If you could say in one word what you want more of in life, what would that be?”
-Response #1 – Happiness. Response #2 – Money.
-There is nothing wrong with these desires. But what happens when these desires become the driving force for everything we do?
James 4:1-3
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.
-The word for ‘desires’ in the Greek is ‘hēdonē’, which means ‘pleasures or lust’. This is where the word ‘hedonism’ comes from.
-James is clarifying what the problem is: the pursuit of pleasure above all.
-These desires are not just destructive, they are fueling evil.
James challenges these believers in two ways:
1. You don’t ask God for what you need. (verse 2)
2. When you do ask God, you ask with wrong motives. (verse 3)
So what does it look like to come to God with right motives?
Matthew 7:7-11
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
What does it mean to come to God with right motives?
-Jesus says to ‘keep asking…keep seeking…keep knocking’ (verse 7). In other words, don’t just come to God once, but continue to bring your needs to Him.
-Jesus says to trust that God is a good Father (verse 11).
The bottom line:
God does not help those who help themselves.
He helps those who ask Him (and trust Him).
Other verses for further study/reflection:
Psalm 63:1-11
1 Timothy 6:10
Ephesians 5:3
Matthew 7:7
1 John 5:14-15
James in 8 Minutes
This overview video on the book of James breaks down the literary design of the book and its flow of thought. In this book, James combines the wisdom of his brother Jesus with the book of Proverbs in his own challenging call to live a life wholly devoted to God.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn-hLHWwRYY