Overcoming Triumphantly

As we face the trials and temptations in this life, we are all too often finding ourselves yielding and doing wrong. So, in this passage tonight, James is giving us some instructions about how to overcome and conquer these temptations. But before we can conquer temptations and trials, we have to understand what causes them. Just what is it that causes temptation and wrongdoing? This passage gives us four things that we will discuss this evening.

READ verse 1. There’s the first of four things that causes temptation and wrongdoing. It is lust or evil desire—to crave pleasure; to crave gratification. The Scripture says that the desire for pleasure and gratification fights within our bodies—whatever will gratify our pleasure. We want and want, and the battle of wanting and desiring rages on and on within our bodies.

Everyone knows what it is to experience this warfare. Desire is strong and difficult to control. A few people may control their desire in what are called the gross and visible sins like vengeance and murder, but they gratify their desire in acceptable things like over eating and selfishness, in buying and hoarding more than what is needed, or in looking when they shouldn’t look.

For instance, when Y2K was coming around. That’s the turn of the century when the year 2000 was upon us. Everyone thought there was going to be a tremendous chaotic situation because the computers wouldn’t trip over to the new century and everything would just shut down. People started buying food and water and hoarding it in underground bunkers. It was a tense situation until nothing happened. But the desire was to protect your own. And all of these didn’t depend upon God.

Now note the result of our desire or lust: it is fights and quarrels. Just imagine what the world would be like if men lived in peace with each other and with God. The greatest need man has is for peace. Yet, when we look at the world, what we see is anything by peace.

So, the question James asks is where do these fights and quarrels come from? What causes them? Unless we know, we can never deal with them or conquer them. So, we must heed Scripture: they come from desire or lust—the passion for pleasure and gratification that rages within the human body. So, there’s one thing that causes these fights and quarrels.

READ verse 2. The second thing that causes this chaos is distrust. The statement in this verse, “You do not have, because you do not ask God,” means that man doesn’t trust God nor call upon God. He just doesn’t know God in a personal way, know Him to the point that he can ask and call upon God to meet his needs. In that, man basically distrusts God.

The word lust or desire is a different word meaning want. It’s different than the word for lust or desire in verse 1 & 3. That word means a yearning desire or passion. Sometimes the desire is good; sometimes it’s bad. For example, to desire food is good, but to desire food and more food is bad. This is the point of this verse.

We don’t have our desires met because we don’t trust and depend upon God to fulfill our desires. There’s nothing wrong with our basic desires; they are to be met. But they are to be met by our trusting and depending upon God, acknowledging Him as the Source and Provider of every good and perfect gift. When we ignore God, our desires run loose and wild. It’s when God is shoved aside that we begin to desire to the point that we lie, steal, cheat, fight, kill, and quarrel.

READ verse 3. The third thing that causes these fights and quarrels is praying amiss, praying with the wrong motive. And I feel that this is the major point of this passage and that we can get the most from this verse and topic. Even when a person trusts God, he can ask God for help in the wrong way. He can pray amiss, and when he prays amiss, God is unable to help him.

What does it mean to pray amiss? What is a wrong prayer? Scripture tells us, and this is the reason our prayers are so often not answered, at least not in the way that we expect. Here’s the answer; we ask for things so that we gratify our lust and pleasure. We ask for the wrong reasons, with the wrong motives. We ask for:

? Health just so we can be more comfortable.

? Healing and a longer life just so we can continue a comfortable life.

? Money just so that we have more.

? Success so we can be recognized.