James 4:2&3 –
<2> You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. <3> And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
This says a lot! If we believe God provides all, then we must believe that all we need to do is ask. As we have said before, Father God is NOT Grandfather God. Both give out of love. But a good Father usually looks at motivation before granting the wish.
I hope that James speaks to you as he does to me on this point. You can see by the amount of time I spent in Chapter 1 that I like his writings. I was an interesting program on TV about the early Church and Jesus’ family, James is thought by some to be Jesus’ half brother (either an older son of Joseph or a son born to Mary and Joseph after the birth of Jesus). Either way he was a leader in the early Jewish/ Christian Church. Paul’s mission was evangelical – and he was to expand the Church. James was probably either a Rabbi or just a member of the congregation of a small local synagogue.
Whoever James was – and whatever his connection to Jesus – his Epistle is a very short and powerful read. I suggest doing so without reference to any commentary. I first read it in about 20 minutes.
Proverbs 19:6 – “Many seek favors from a ruler; everyone is the friend of a person who gives gifts!” – Grand parents and God!!