What Do You Want?

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Have you ever ignored your GPS because you were absolutely convinced that you knew a better way? The GPS wasn’t smarter than you because it was more intelligent, it simply had a perspective you didn’t.

It’s amazing how quickly we assume we know better, even though all we can see is what’s right in front of us. And honestly, that’s not just how we drive, it’s how we live.

We think:

• I know how this conversation should go.
• I know how this relationship should work.
• I know what they need to hear.
• I know what should happen.
  
  

The problem isn’t having an opinion, the problem is when your opinion becomes the final word. The problem is when we stop asking, “God, what do You want?” because we’ve already decided, “I know what’s best.”

Why is it so hard to believe that maybe, just maybe, someone sees something we don’t? We don’t reject God’s wisdom because we are trying to rebel, we reject it because we trust our own more.

That’s the human condition. It’s not just believing we’re right but believing we are the best person to decide what’s right.

The Book of Genesis says that Eve saw the fruit as “good for food,” “pleasing to the eye,” and “desirable for gaining wisdom.” She didn’t reach for it because it looked evil, she did because it looked right.

Every time we quietly decide that we know better, know what’s best, and have the best perspective. So, who gets to define wisdom and who has the final Word? God, or us?

Real Faith Lets God Define What Is Wise
No one ever argues with the GPS after they get to their destination, we only argue with it before we know where the road goes. Every wrong turn you take feels like the right one. Nobody wakes up intending to make foolish decisions. We choose what seems wise.

In the Book of James, James doesn’t ask if we want to be wise, he asks, “Who is wise?”

Humility is what happens when we finally admit that God may see something we don’t.

Real Faith Lets God Define What Is Wise
Wisdom begins the moment we stop assuming we know best.

James 3
14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.

With envy and selfish ambition, your life becomes centered around one question, “How do I get what I want?”

James doesn’t call us out on this, rather, he explains that this is “wisdom from a completely different source.”

James 3
15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

It’s either from God or not.

James 3
16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. 17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

James says you don’t have to guess where the wisdom is coming from, look at what it’s producing.

You don’t have to identify wisdom by how convincing it sounds, you identify it by the fingerprints it leaves behind. That’s why real faith lets God define what’s wise. In humility, you’ll know when you’re doing that based on the fruit you see.

Real Faith Examines Its Desires
If God’s wisdom is so much better, why don’t we choose it? Nobody wants the fruit James describes, so why do we keep producing it? The problem isn’t what kind of wisdom you’re following. The problem is what you’re wanting.

James 4
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?

He asks, “Where did it come from?” That’s a completely different question. The issues you’re having, and the fighting you’re doing, come from your desires.

James 4
2 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. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

James says the problem isn’t simply that you want something, it’s what happens when you don’t get what you want. So, in the middle of conflict, you need to ask yourself, “What do I want right now?” Because underneath the argument, frustration, or fight, there’s usually something you’re reaching for.

Wanting certain things isn’t necessarily wrong, but when you have to have them, they drive you. Our conflicts reveal what we want. They reveal our desires and how misaligned our desires are with God’s.

Every desire isn’t sinful, but every desire is revealing. James is saying that if we’re not careful, even our prayers can become another way of trying to get what we want.

James 4
4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

James shifts the metaphor to adultery, and it’s not because he’s changing the subject, he’s actually reached the deepest level of the issue, royalty.

Whatever desire becomes ultimate in our lives is what we worship. So, if you refuse to surrender certain desires in your life, God won’t compete for a throne He alone deserves. Whatever you have on that throne is what you worship.

James 4
6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

Our desires may be strong, but He gives more grace.

Our pride may run deep, but He gives more grace.

We’ve spent years insisting on our own way, but He gives more grace.

God doesn’t expose what’s in our hearts just to push us away. He exposes it so we can bring it to Him.

Real Faith Returns to God
James 4
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

There are numerous actions, yet James tells us to respond in only one way. Turn around, repent, and come back.

Everything James gives us to do comes out of the first thing He says: Submit yourselves to God.

God should be the one defining wisdom, sitting on the throne, and getting the final word.

James 4
11 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

Every time we insist on being the judge, we’ve forgotten we aren’t the King. That’s the issue. You don’t need the final word, to win, or to be the Holy Spirit in someone else’s life. You need to let God be God, examine what your heart really wants, define what is wise, and then submit yourself to Him.

James 4
8 Come near to God and he will come near to you…

James doesn’t simply say, “Stop wanting things.” He says, “Come near to God.”

All the desires you’re after, they’re actually found and met in the presence of God. That’s why James doesn’t just call us away from something. He calls us toward Someone.

The invitation has always been and will always be, “Come closer.”