Week 8: James 4:1-11~Conflict

RECAP:
Week 1-Polka Dot
Week 2-not letting trials lead to sin
Week 3-not holding your faith in favoritism
Week 4-God's Word
Week 5-Faith and Works
Week 6-The Tongue
Week 7-Wisdom

This Week: Week 8--Conflict

When I prepared for today, I had to fall on my face before the Lord and pray for several hours that he would create in me a clean heart an renew in me a right spirit. I knew without doing so, I could not speak with you on the topic of conflict.

In James 4:1-11, James is writing to Christians and addressing a topic that is common in all of our lives.

From last week, we know what God has put in us when we were in the womb and we have a constant decision whether to live according to that or our sinful nature. In the past few months, however, I have witnessed firsthand just how innate our sin nature really is.

Example: My oldest daughter has twins and they can be the best of friends. One of them does happen to be more aggressive than the other and when she wants something that the other has, she takes time to wisely plot her strategy, circles around and swoops in for "the kill." Then, total chaos ensues. It truly amazes me because no one told them how to do this. They were born with it!

I asked who in the room has conflict? Pretty much everyone raised their hand. Who of you has conflict?

Unfortunately, it is just part of being human and we all encounter it every day.

In this passage we will look at three C's of conflict: CAUSE, CONSEQUENCE and CURE.

CAUSE
A friend once told me conflict comes from the struggle over 3 things:

1. Land
2. Money
3. Power

I asked the ladies if they could think of any others and we came up with quite a list!

• Stubborness
• Love
• Jealousy
• Expectations
• Pride
• Children
• Teenagers :)
• Selfishness
• Misunderstandings

What can you add to this list?

The scripture warns us of such causes.
Pride: Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18

Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are human eyes. Proverbs 27:20

James says the cause of our conflicts is our own pleasure and it wages war in our soul.

The greek word for "pleasure" is "passion". "Passion" means "desire".
There is a huge trend today that encourages everyone to "find their passion."

I can not help but think when I read this passage that finding "our passion" can be a great source of conflict in our lives. Once we find it, we have to protect it...UNLESS we seek what God has gifted us for and ask what HE wants to use from our lives. Otherwise, we might be finding ourselves sitting in the middle of unnecessary conflict. This can be very wearing! Remember: Passion for passion's sake is not good and will wage war on your soul.

Read Romans 7: 18-23.

Paul talks about wanting to do the right thing but his actions would be something totally opposite. I can testify. There would be times in my life that I would be talking to someone and know that God was making it clear to me to keep my mouth shut but I would just be sitting there and my mouth would open and out would come empty words. So many times when I would do that, the conflict would just go on and on. Praise God that He has given us His Spirit to help us overcome our weaknesses and fleshly desires!

James 4:2 continues to say that our own lust or desire causes conflict. It seems so often that we intentionally take matters into our own hands when we want something so much. We need to pray that the Lord will help us line up our actions with our heart, a heart towards Him.
I Peter 2:11 says lust wages war with our soul. Conflict is caused from being envious, wanting what someone else has. Example: If material things are what we are envious over we will find ourselves in endless turmoil.

CONSEQUENCES
Reason for consequences of our conflicts:

• We do not receive direction because we ask God with the wrong motives. We ask according to what we want so we can lavish ourselves instead of getting on our faces before God and asking what He wants.
• Not having godly friends and being friends with the world instead of God. Who do you want to be friends with? Godly friends are a great support and encouragement and are a must to growing in Christ.
• Lastly, James 4:5 says that a consequence is making God jealous. HE breathed life into you and He jealously looks upon you as His precious child.

CURE
 Submit to God, come near to God, humble yourself before the Lord. In other words, get on your face before Him. In doing that you will resist the devil, He will come near to you and He WILL lift you up! It is a promise.

I have encouraged all the ladies to spend some time before the Lord in prayer this week and to come back and share how it helped in their lives and conflicts. I encourage you to do the same and don't be scared to share it with us! Also, feel free to let us know if there is anything we can pray for you!