66.3 Return To God And Purify Your Hearts

(James 4:1-10)

Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from?  They come from your desires for pleasure, which are constantly fighting within you.  You want things, but you cannot have them, so you are ready to kill; you strongly desire things, but you cannot get them, so you quarrel and fight.  You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it. And when you ask, you do not received it, because your motives are bad; you ask for things to use for your own pleasures. Unfaithful people! Don't you know that to be the world's friend means to be God's enemy? Whoever wants to be the world's friend makes himself God's enemy.  Don't think that there is no truth in the scripture that says, "The spirit that God placed in us is filled with fierce desires."But the grace that God gives is even stronger.  As the scripture says,"God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

So then, submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will ran away from you. Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites! Be sorrowful, cry, and weep; change your laughter into crying, your joy into gloom! Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

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