Unanswered prayer? One reason . . .

People do not always agree and get along. I read and watch mysteries and even though most are fiction, they are based on this reality. Someone wants something they cannot have so they harm others trying to get it. Mostly, that thing they cannot have is a selfish desire. For this, God says:

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 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. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 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. (James 4:1–4)

The root of the problem is selfishness, another word for sinfulness. The object of desire could be legitimate but in this description the reason for wanting it is all about me, me, me. As a Christian, all I have to do is ask God for those things that I need, even the things that I want, but if my motivation is to bless myself or glorify myself, or make me the star, then the prayer will not be answered. I have made my wants and my stuff more important than listening to and obeying God.

It happens. I’m too embarrassed to name some of what I’ve asked for wrongly and God said no. I’m ashamed of the emotions that rose up because I didn’t get what I wanted and the arguments I’ve been in for the same reason. Yet if it were not for those experiences, I’d not know the reality of a couple of big reasons that God does not answer prayer.

One is that I do not ask. I assume I can get it for myself, perhaps knowing in my heart that it is the wrong thing to ask for anyway.

The other is that I ask but with that selfish motivation that this thing is for me, to satisfy me, to make me the winner, to do for me what I should not want but am asking anyway.

There are lessons learned from being selfish. While God often shields my foolishness from the public eye, just knowing that others see how I’m thinking and acting is awful. Worse yet, knowing I’m putting myself above the care and wisdom of God is humbling. For this, I should be thankful. The alternative, a hard heart, would make the next few verses meaningless . . .

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4:6–10)

From being so selfish and from realizing God becomes deaf to my selfish prayers makes me realize my pride and the way the devil manipulates my thinking. It also makes me realize that this passage has a logical sequence. It is summarized at the beginning: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” This is well described in the next lines.

Submit to God comes first. There is no power to resist Satan or my own selfishness while I try to hang on to it. I cannot serve Him while I am trying to serve me.

Resist the devil comes on the heels of submitting to God. Stop listening to the devil’s lies and destructive suggestions. If I am yielded to God, he must leave and he does. Sometimes it takes me a while to figure out what I’ve held back from God, but once that happens (and is confessed) the pressure is off. I win — by giving up!

The reset of it is easy. Mourning over sin is not fun, but in the end, God exalts me. That is always unexpected, even though I know this verse. God is utterly amazing!

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Jesus, there are times when I’ve prayed, “You are my Savior, save me” and You come to the rescue. However, there are times when I’ve prayed, “Give me . . . .” and asked for foolish and sinful things. I’m so glad that You are not like a genie in a bottle that grants every wish. You keep me from the silliness and sinfulness of myself. For that, I praise and thank You.

Today’s thankful list . . .

The Word of God that tells me how to live in victory.

The energy that comes with freedom from selfishness.

Ability to choose.

Finally being able to get my sister on the phone.

My personal trainer who refuses me the luxury of whining.

Being able to record rugby games in the middle of the night to watch the next day.

Crisp cold air with sunshine.

Salmon sandwiches on homemade bread.

Pride and humility

Humility is a difficult virtue. I’ve said it before and say it again . . . just when a person thinks they are humble, they have lost it.

Pride is easier to identify. James paints pride as trusting the things of this world instead of trusting God. He goes so far as to label pride ‘adultery’ and following after the devil . . .

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. 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”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4:4–10)

James is one of those black and white people who call things what they are without any fudging. However, he has a redemptive spirit too, for he gives the solution to pride. He tells those who are unfaithful to God that God is always faithful to us. He opposes our pride, but He gives more grace. If my proud heart submits to Him, I am able to resist the devil — the one who keeps yammering at me to trust myself and anything else but God.

Not only that, when I draw near to God, He is right here, ready to forgive and help me out of that pride-pit into which I have fallen.

Tozer calls truth a “glorious but hard mistress” who never bargains or compromises. This world is fallen, making the path of truth a steep and difficult climb. My way is messed up by sin and sin makes the way of God not only strange, but hard to follow.

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Galatians 5:17)

The only way to win in that conflict is to submit to God. Otherwise, the flesh and the devil will overcome all good things and fill my life with yuck.

All that said, some days are more challenging than others. I can yield more easily to the God who makes life peaceful and comfortable than I can to the same God who tests me with all sorts of situations and predicaments that are tense and difficult. Nevertheless, the word is the same: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

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Jesus, today I feel like two things that are far from the words ‘submit’ or ‘resist’ and closer to ‘flee’ and ‘give up.’ I need grace to resist that pride that yells at me that ‘I deserve better than this,’ and more grace to submit to several challenges You place in my path, and even more grace to stand against the devil and tell him to get lost.

Feeding the right nature . . .

Chinese Christian Watchman Nee described the Christian experience of flesh vs. spirit as like having two dogs fighting inside of him. When asked which one was winning, he replied, “The one that I feed the most.”

Christian people ought to avoid certain activities when we know they will feed the wrong dog. Sometimes this is easy to figure out. If I had been an alcoholic (I wasn’t’) I would avoid bars and liquor cabinets. If I had once idolized particular sports or certain people, I would stay away, at least until that was no longer a problem, or in other words, until those activities stopped feeding that dog.

Another person described sin and temptation like having a wolf on a tether. It was always there, but stay beyond the length of the tether and for goodness’ sake, don’t pet the wolf!

Paul wrote about the battle of trying to do the will of God and how our sinful nature resists that. He knew that sin has been defeated by faith in Christ, but he also knew that it stubbornly does not go away and leave us alone. (Read these verses slowly!) . . .

“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” (Romans 7:14–25)

I can especially echo the middle part of this passage: I also desire to do what is right, but in myself have no ability to carry it out. I cannot do the good I want to, but find sin very easy to do. Yet the Bible says that by faith in God I have been made a new creature. So if I am a new creature, why then am I plagued by that old sinful nature? Paul says, “Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”

In the beginning, it was easy to see those areas of “feeding the wrong dog” and turn away from them. However, as time goes by, the Holy Spirit reveals to me how easily I can toss a few crumbs that way and often not realize it, but always wind up in trouble. Sin is like standing on that proverbial slippery slope. Just desiring to go that direction puts me at the top of the slope and if I don’t cry out to Jesus, I’m certain to slide into trouble. To use the wolf metaphor, I cannot pet the beast without getting bitten.

It seems to me that when the Bible talks about maturity such as the way God spoke of Job, it may include the ability to ‘feed the right dog’ but perfection isn’t the same as being sinless . . .

“And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?’” (Job 1:8)

Job hated evil, but his story reveals he was not sinless (no one is). He experienced calamity after calamity and did not curse God, but he also said that had he sinned to deserve all this, he would have known it. In other words, this man was in touch with his own spiritual life. If he fed the wrong dog and fell into sin, he knew it, but he also knew what to do about it. This is the secret of being mature. It is summed up in one short New Testament verse:

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

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Jesus, until my sin nature is eradicated, the possibility and danger of sin remains. Yet You are faithful in teaching me how to do battle. Every day I’m becoming more aware of Your power and protection, but also how to wear spiritual armor and fight evil distractions. Some days, particularly when I am tired or experience set-backs and disappointments, that wrong dog begs to be fed, as if petting it will put him away from me. But that is not true. My only defense is clear in James 4:7: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Bless me today with the Spirit of submission to You so I am feeding that new nature that You gave me.