"Me First"

James 4:1-10
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Lately, my life has been, I think, horrendous. Things have been going wrong, marks haven't been what they should be, friendships are falling apart...and in the end, I can only think about myself. I'm so caught up trying to figure out my own problems, that I shove everyone else away. And this is the attitude that God warns against.


"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so 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 4:1-3]


God tells us directly the source of our troubles. It's our mentality, our "ME FIRST" mentality. We want to pleasure ourselves first. We want the best for ourselves first. We want good for us first, before good for others come to our minds. Verse 4 even tells us this kind of mentality draws us away from God, ruining our relationship with him. Now that we know how destructive this kind of thinking is, what do we do?


First, we must...


"Submit yourselves, then, to God." [James 4:7]


After that...


"Come near to God and he will come near to you." [James 4:8]


And due to all this,


"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." [James 4:10]


Let's put God first.

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When you forget yourself, you usually start doing something others will remember.