James 4:1-3

James 4:1-3 King James Version (KJV)
4 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 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.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.


James 4:1-3 International Children’s Bible (ICB)
Give Yourselves to God

4 Do you know where your fights and arguments come from? They come from the selfish desires that make war inside you. 2 You want things, but you do not have them. So you are ready to kill and are jealous of other people. But you still cannot get what you want. So you argue and fight. You do not get what you want because you do not ask God. 3 Or when you ask, you do not receive because the reason you ask is wrong. You want things only so that you can use them for your own pleasures.

International Children’s Bible (ICB) The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a division of Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.

These are my thoughts, please share yours.

1 These fights are from our flesh and while Satan wants us to fall to our flesh and may throw temptation in our way, we fight because we value our opinion or want our way. We should instead fight for His will and not our, we need to know the difference because while fighting for God’s will may cause division it’s a what we are to do but division because of us doing things our way can cause division also but without being in the Lord’s will and being in sin which requires repentance. 

2 Sometimes its just a matter of going to God with what we want but often times we don’t go to Him because we don’t want Him to say no but no asking Him is as bad if He said no and we did it any way. Nobody wants things to be other than what they want but His will is a much more joyful place then us having our way. We think often only about ourselves but He think about everyone, God’s will is not centered on us, we are apart of it though.

3 Sometimes we don’t go to God because we want the pleasures of the flesh. If we don’t want to go to God because He may say no then maybe its something we shouldn’t be doing in the first place.

The nature to sin is born within us.  It's difficult to master.  The desire to please the Lord is 'born again' within us.  It is with that desire that we learn about God and what He desires.  Only then can we avoid asking 'amiss' and begin allowing the Lord to successfully help us to overcome the inborn sinful desires.

You cannot please God if you don't know what He wants.  You cannot learn what He wants apart from study of His Word.  And, when the Mind of Christ is in one's mind, then and only then can we walk in faith and allow Him to walk in us.

Thank you, well said.