What Is Ruling You? | Daily Devotional 1621

You're listening to the My Morning Devotional Podcast, episode 1621. Today's Devo is called What is Ruling You? Hey there, we're the Alessis, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy, the to-do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why every weekday we share a five-minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast. Well, welcome back to the My Morning Devotional Podcast. My name is Gabby, and I am so excited to be back in the booth with you all and be back on the podcast to kick off another week of devotionals. I haven't been in here for a month and I always miss sitting in here, opening God's word, and diving into it with all of you guys. We have been studying the book of James. First of all, I have to say we're kind of in a new setup. I'm in a new chair, this table. I feel awkward. So forgive me if I'm a little awkward with this setup. For those of you that are watching, if you're listening, you didn't hear any of that. But we're diving into the book of James all month long. And now we're going into James chapter four. Now I want to preface this by saying that James wrote this book. He's actually the half-brother of Jesus. This would have been the brother of Jesus. And he wrote this book for all Christ followers, all believers. Um, the difference, and the reason why I bring this up, is because Paul would have written to a specific group or a specific church, and that specific group would be handling specific issues. Um, Paul would have written to the Church of Corinthians about order in the church, right? Whereas James is writing to all Jesus followers and anybody that calls themselves a believer. And a couple of the things that he is doing, he's not speaking to a group of problems, he's just speaking to everybody altogether. And he actually quotes the Sermon on the Mount and the book of Proverbs. So he quotes Jesus and he quotes Solomon in Proverbs chapters one through nine, I believe. So you're gonna hear a lot of the same themes that we actually hear throughout the Bible and the Old Testament, and then also in the Sermon on the Mount. And then the last preface I want to say is this that James says it like it is. He does not sugarcoat, he's kind of my kind of guy. He does not sugarcoat, he does not uh lay it on thin. No, he attacks it and he goes for truth. And really, what he wants to achieve, dang it, I haven't even had lunch yet. And really, what he wants to achieve is and really what he wants to achieve is encouraging believers to pursue wisdom and righteousness. All right, let's jump into it. James chapter four, verses one through three. It says this what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this that your passions are at war within you? You desire and you do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and you quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask, and you ask and you do not receive, because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. You see, James starts by asking, why do we fight and why do we quarrel? He's asking this question to every single one of us, but to the believers at that time. But his answer goes deeper than the argument itself. He says this that our desires are at war within us. And you see, sometimes how this breaks down is that sometimes the problem isn't what someone did to you which causes you to fight. No, sometimes it's what we wanted and that we didn't get. We want to control, or we want the attention, we want the recognition, we want things to go our way, we want our plan to work. Ultimately, we want our prayers answered. And when those desires become more important than God, they can produce anger, they can produce jealousy and conflict and frustration. And I think this is so interesting. It's the idea of when our desires become greater than God's will. I remember when Christian and I started dating, we were talking a lot about, you know, the struggles of life and the things that people have to wait for. Or when you experience a loss, or you haven't answered prayer that isn't answered yet, or you're you're praying for something that isn't answered yet. And I remember talking about it with him, and he always has told me, he said, you know, the one thing that believers need to do is they have to remind themselves that their desire has to submit to the will of God. That even though they're believing for it, even though we're believing for that healing, even though we're believing for that prodigal to come home, and even though we're believing for that spouse to come into our lives, even if we never see it, God is still good. And even if it never happens, God's will is still greater than mine. And so ultimately, I see this in James chapter four, verses one through three. Our heart and our desires are at war within us. We're constantly fighting for something, we're constantly finding and looking for things that meet our needs and our desires when we have to put them all aside and say, God, my desire is to serve you and not the desires of my heart. God, I want to chase after your will. James says this that you do not have because you do not ask. And even when we ask, sometimes our motives are wrong. So I want to ask you this question. This is a raw question that we have to be vulnerable about. What desire have I allowed to become more important than God's will? Sit on it, think about it, and let's pray about it. Father, we just we thank you for your word. We thank you for this day, God, that you've created. Father, I just pray over all of us as we simmer on this word today in James chapter four. This isn't an easy message. This isn't an easy pill to swallow, Father, because we do have desires in our heart and it is a war within us. We do feel like there are two sides, the sides of your will, but the sides of our desires, God. And there are times that our desires truly, truly feel like they outweigh our desire to serve you and to follow your will. So, Lord, I just pray that today you would show us what desires are more important to us. I pray that you would show us, Lord, where we might be putting our focus and where we might be paying attention to and what we might be looking at, Lord, more than your will. Because, Lord, whether the desire is met, whether the prayer is answered, your will is still greater than them all. And so we surrender it to you and we give you praise and thanksgiving. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. So there you have it, your five minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. 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