Asking End Asserting

“From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.” (Jas 4:1-2 AV)

 

I don’t know why this escaped me for all these years, but James is talking to believers here.  He is tying problems among members of the body of Christ with a lack of prayer.  We know he is speaking to believers because of verses three and four.  When the Spirit illumined this to me, it was like a giant lightbulb went off.  A profound moment that flooded the heart with all sorts of thoughts.  Thoughts that verify how important prayer is to the body of Christ.  Not corporate prayer, mind you.  This is not to which James is referring.  This is a personal prayer time.  Lack of prayer in one’s own personal life will cause immense problems in personal relationships with another.  The implication above is believers would rather fight and war with one another to get what we want rather than go to the LORD and be satisfied with His answer.  Show me a church whose members constantly bicker, and I will show you a church that does not pray a whole lot.

Coming from a large family, we had our disputes.  They were far too numerous to remember them all.  However, there was one dispute that rang through the otherwise quiet halls of a house with eleven children.  At least as quiet as a house with eleven children can be.  When I was a kid, cereal boxes came with prizes at the bottom of the box.  Much like Crackerjack did at the time.  You can only imagine the fight that erupted when the bottom of the box became evident.  The standing agreement was the person who poured out the toy into his bowl was the proud owner of a book of lick-on tattoos.  Or a submarine that dove and rose.  Or a whistle.  Or a ring.  It was a reward for eating all the crumbs at the bottom.  However, it didn’t take long for the wiser of the bunch to manipulate the toy higher in the box by a technique of shaking the contents while rotating the box in a circular motion.  A move the Karate Kid would have been envious of.  Mom caught on real quick.  She had had the fights and bickering.  We went to her to solve the problem every morning there was cereal on the table.  We asked her to settle the dispute.  Before she answered our request, it was every man for himself.  When we went to Mom, it was agreed whatever her solution was, it was the law of the land.  In her infinite wisdom, Mom opened all the cereal boxes from the bottom, removed the toys, and place them all in a bag.  When there were enough toys for one each, we would draw from the bag according to the closest birthday to that date.  That way, we all got to be first at least one time a cycle.  The key to ending the fighting was to ask Mom to intervene.  Asking, rather than demanding, was the answer.

Prayer causes us to settle things with God before we settle them with others.  Prayer causes us to accept the outcome no matter how different it might be from our desire.  Prayer requires we wait patiently on the LORD.  Prayer makes us accept an outcome either in or against our favor.  What prayer does very well is it causes us to leave things with God and let Him work them out rather than to try to manipulate an outcome we want.  This is the meaning above.  Those to whom James is writing are carnal Christians who desire an outcome and are not willing to delegate that outcome to God by prayer.  They are going to work their actions and words (which is exactly why James deals with the tongue in chapter two) so that they can pressure others into complying with what they think is right.  When the Apostles replaced Judas with Mithais, the first thing they did was pray.  When Paul was thrust into prison, the first thing he did was to pray.  When the council met in Jerusalem to dispute the role of Gentiles in the church, the first thing they did was to pray.  Prayer is the greatest asset to the believer and the church.  Abandoning prayer, be it corporate or personal, only ends in fights and wars.  No prayer, no peace.