James 4:1-10

1) What does cause fights and quarrels among you? In other words, in what areas of your life are you most likely to experience conflict?

2) Can you identify instances where pride and self-centeredness is at the root of these conflicts?

3) What are instances where pride and self-focus causes us to fail even ask God for help? What are instances were, when we do pray to God, our prayers reflect pride and self-focus?

4) Why do you think James uses such strong language in verse 4? In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, God uses the language of marriage to describe his relationship with the church. What type of friendships in a human marriage would “friendship with the world” be similar to in the church’s marriage to God? How does “envy” function in a healthy way in marriages?

5) What are ways that we have damaged or are damaging our relationship with God through friendship with the world?

6) What does the passage teach us about the path to restoration? What does it mean to truly humble oneself before God? “Grieve, morn, and wail” is not the sort of phrase that one hears in American Christianity very much. Why not? How can a spirit of genuinely humble repentance better characterize our relationship with God?

7) This passage encourages us to draw near to the cross of Christ, and draw away from the world and the devil. What are practical steps we could take this week to do that? How could we hold each other accountable?