City Life Starter

I. THE WORD:

And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. – JAMES 4:3

II. REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. How strong a motive is a pleasure in your life?

2. Does delaying gratification come easy or hard to you?

3. What can you ask for today that will please God?

 I hope you have been learning a lot about your relationship with money over the last few weeks of our Life Series. As we think about being socially responsible with our finances, the last part of today’s verse personally challenged me, “your motives are all wrong – you want only what will give you pleasure.”

 Here are a few things this verse is speaking to me:

• Being socially responsible with our money is not as much about our giving situation as it is about our living situation. What we have to give is determined largely by the way we live.

• Without God’s grace and presence, it’s easy to fall into a lifestyle of never-ending pleasure seeking and pain avoidance. When we are free from the need to constantly seek pleasure and avoid pain, i.e. – satisfied in Jesus, we can redirect not only our money but our time into kingdom efforts in the world around us. We can do more with less, and more with more!

• There are elements of risk, faith, and trust involved in living a life of delayed gratification. It also means instant and consistent sacrifice. This is how we are called to live, and we have a great example of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 As Christians, we have so many incredible promises from God about the glorious future that awaits us when we choose to abandon the lifestyle of pleasure seeking and trust that our faith, patience, and sacrifice will be richly rewarded by God. I am challenged. Are you?

III. PRAYER

Thank you, God, for breaking us from the bondage of selfish living. When we seek and find our pleasure in you, we are free to spend our time and money on the things that you have already planned for us to do. We are your hands and feet, so help us to have the right motives – to want only what will bring Jesus pleasure – and give us the finances we need to accomplish your will for our lives. Amen.