4:1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
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LORD, I give you my passions and desires. My selfishness and self-centeredness. Help me not be angry with others because they oppose me or hurt me. Save your people from strife and division. Help us to have more faith in prayer than in our power. Allow our prayers to become more kingdom minded than simply attempting to use you as our personal "genie". Provide to me a hunger and thirst for righteousness that is reflected in my prayers. Give me a passion for YOU and YOUR will.
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4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?
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Lord, forgive my spiritual adultery. Help me to see and repent of how American culture has corrupted my outlook on life and feelings. Help me not desire the praise of the unbelieving community and people around me. Allow me to remember that my baptism has separated me from this society of rebellion and made me a citizen of your eternal kingdom of loving righteousness. Help me understand how YOU demand I only worship YOU and YOU alone!
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6 But he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
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Give to me and your children around the world super grace. Humble us and keep us from pride. Let YOUR will and not our will be done on earth as in heaven. Allow us to firmly reject the lies and illusions offered by the dark lord of rebellion. Help us change the deeds of our hands that they may be free of corruption and abuse. Also, grant that our motivations and thoughts would reflect your holy heart.
Give to me holy tears this day of repentance. Help me to truly hate the sin in my life and feel the shame of it deeply in my soul. Keep me from killing the struggles of my soul with the amusements and distractions offered by the unbelieving culture. Give me the wisdom to humble myself by admitting who I am and known that without you I can do nothing.
LORD lift me up. Lord lift up your communities of faith, Lord, lift up your children. Without your help, we will perish. Lord have mercy. Amen.
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