Psalm 16:11 vs James 4:1

 Psalm 16:11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

 

James 4:1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

 

This morning Psalm 16:11 came up during a prayer meeting I attend through Zoom.  As we were praying for those countries that are at war the Holy Spirit brought James 4:1 to my mind.  What He showed me was that we war and fight with one another from our desire for earthly pleasures that will not last while God has pleasures that are forevermore that we can have in His presence.  His presence that everyone who is born again can have right now.  Pleasures that are not based upon our circumstances or abilities. Pleasures that we don’t have to earn or take from someone else. Why, because they are offered freely as a gift to all who will believe.  

Do we not see the trick that the enemy continues to play on us?  We fight and go to war for what God has provided for us freely and abundantly.  We will actually kill someone to obtain something that is pleasurable for but a moment but yet ignore the pleasures of God that are eternal. 

 Go back to the beginning.  The enemy tempts man to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because with the promise that man would be like God.  The truth was that man was already like God because he had been made in the image of God.  So, man trades eternity for the deception of obtaining something that he already had. Why do we allow ourselves to fall into the deception of striving, working for, fighting for and even killing one another for what is already ours?  

Please take a moment to meditate on these 2 verses.  

Is it better to continue to live in the stresses of life, to work and fight for what the world offers?  Are you anxious because you don’t know what is going to happen?  Do you believe that by you being in control that you will be less fearful?  In this election season do you really believe that if your candidates are elected that everything in your life will be better and that their decisions will bring you joy every day?  Are any of them going to share their personal wealth with you?

God sent His Son to die for us so that you could become part of His family.  Not only that but also through Jesus we get to become not only children of God but also heirs but not just heirs.  We get to be joint heirs with Jesus meaning what Jesus gets we get in full.  We don’t just share it we get all of it in full.    

I can do nothing

 I can do nothing

 

One of the biggest traps and lies that I can fall into is thinking that I am enough and that I can do it or handle it. 
This statement may seem to be wrong by many because of the self-empowerment slogans we hear from all around us is that tell us how we are enough, we can do it and we have the power. What we fail to see is that if we are enough and we have to power to do it then we have the ultimate responsibility for accomplishing everything in our lives. It doesn’t take living very long to realize that this is a lie.  There are things that come up in life that we don’t have the intelligence, talent, ability, power, or finances to handle.  Seriously if we are enough to handle it we would never fail. 

Yet the truth, and comfort, is found in the last part of John 15:5

John 15:5 b. “for without Me you can do nothing.”

Jesus statement here isn’t a narcissistic, ego driven put down. He is stating a fact and one that brings me great comfort. Comfort in that it reminds me that I am not responsible to do ANYTHING by myself.  That my success in life is not based in my strength or relying upon my talents and resources. Confessing time, I am not that talented and I possess very little in regard to resources, abilities, connections, personality, charisma and all that the world says makes one successful. I learned from experience that I cannot make it happen. The bottom line is I am limited, BUT God is NOT. 

Look at the first part of John 15:5“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; 
My stress leaves me when I remember that Jesus doesn’t ask me to succeed, or accomplish anything. He just wants me to abide in Him. He will produce the fruit in me. He will do the accomplishing; He will produce the success. I am not nor will ever be enough but He is more than enough. When I remember this, I relax and just abide in Him and His rest.  Trusting in His limitlessness instead of falling into the inevitable depression that comes from me attempting to do it by myself and failing.