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This And That


            You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:2-3) 

            What prevents you from rejoicing in the Lord always? (Max Lucado, Anxious for Nothing Study Guide, p. 27) 

            In my reading for the day, Mr. Lucado challenged me to take a few minutes to contemplate the answer to his question. What’s your answer? I don’t want to put my words in your mouth. It seems to me, however, that they most obvious answer is that selfishness keeps me from rejoicing in Him. How can I rejoice when I am lacking this or that? How can I rejoice when He hasn’t delivered what I wanted? How can anyone rejoice in Him when the world is so messed up? Or when our lives are so much less than we ever thought they would be?
            As I wrote the previous paragraph, something else stood out to me. In addition to the repeated I’s, there are thises, thats, whats, and worlds. How can we rejoice in the Lord when we’re looking at things?
            This isn’t a new problem. God told the Israelites that He would be their God and King. They wanted gods and kings like everyone else had. The Levites weren’t given an inheritance among the Israelites because God was their inheritance. We’re told to seek His face, but instead, we seek His hand, and we sing a Christianized version of “Santa Baby.”
            Of course, God has commanded us to submit our requests to Him. We are to intercede for each other. God created us to need things. The prayer we call “The Lord’s Prayer” includes requests for our daily bread and for forgiveness. But how often do we forget the Our Father, the Who art in Heaven, the Hallowed be Thy Name, the Thy kingdom come, and the Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven?
            And as much as we should thank Him for that daily bread and forgiveness, are we rejoicing in the  benefits rather than the Benefactor?

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