October 25, 2023

Passage Read: James 4-5
Meditation Verses: 4:7-10

Thought

Living for my own pleasures is friendship with the world; James links these two things. The only solution is to purify my heart and mind, to stop loving the world and being its friend. Either I love the Lord by humbling myself before Him, weeping and mourning over my sin and the world's sin, or I seek my own pleasures, just as everyone in the world does. I live for this life and the things of this world, or I humble myself before God, resist the devil, wash my hands and purify my heart. Do I want my joy and pleasure now, or do I want to be lifted up by the Lord in His time? It is far better to be honored by the Lord than to seek honor here and now.

Application

There is such temptation to seek honor and pleasure in this life, but that is hostility to God. James calls me to grieve, mourn and wail, to change my laughter to mourning and my joy to gloom. Seems pretty miserable, but there is certainly cause for it, given the sinfulness of the world and the worldliness of believers, and my own lack of faith and love of present comfort. There is little to rejoice over and much to mourn over.