Petitions of Pleasures

“What causes fights and quarrels among you?  Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?  You want something but don’t get it.  You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want...When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” James 4:1-3.

I remember many years ago we had the opportunity to move to Australia with Bruce’s employer.  This was during the time when I had secretly mounted up debt in our marriage and prayed for this move to happen.  A big bonus was promised along with the move so my motives were clearly centered around my desire to pay off this debt without being discovered.  I prayed for this move from the standpoint of how it could benefit me instead of how it could benefit the whole family.  Thankfully, my prayers were not answered.

Many times we ask God for things that fail to benefit the spiritual kingdom, promoting the desires of the earthly things.  The battle within us wages as we discover that to have that certain something is not aligned with God’s plan.  Our obsession to have ‘that thing’ kills every bit of contentment in our life.  We wrestle between what we want and what we cannot have.  This battle kills any bit of joy in our life that God intends us to discover.  We find ourselves detached from the compassion and plight of others, another casualty of this war from within.  Our failure to get what we want becomes our battle cry and distracts us from being focused on His will.

We must align our prayers with God’s plan and purpose.  If our petition primarily benefits our pleasures we should be prepared to fight this battle for a long time.  But if our petitions will bring glory to God and purpose to His kingdom work, it is simply a matter of time.  He wants to give His children all of the good things out of His glorious riches.