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by Logan Ames

There once was a wise teacher in Israel, a man who became king and was wiser than anyone else in the world at the time (1 Kings 4:29-31). His name was Solomon and, despite his great wisdom, he stupidly pursued the fleeting pleasures of the world rather than the lasting joy of knowing God. He obtained for himself over a thousand wives and concubines, many of whom were from foreign nations about which God had commanded the Israelites not to intermarry with their people (1 Kings 11:1-3). As King Solomon grew older, he realized that he had wasted so much of his time, energy, and money on pleasures that would never last. How depressing that must have been for him! He declared in Proverbs 1:7 that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge," meaning everything he knew and everything he had was pointless if he didn’t remember that God still rules over him. He wrote the same thing differently in Ecclesiastes 1:14: “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind."

The vast majority of us truly have no clue what it would be like to have all the money and worldly pleasures of the world combined with the gift of wisdom and understanding. That is the life so many people today are longing for, yet just about anyone I can think of who has lived even a taste of it has found themselves to be utterly unfulfilled. If you had everything you could’ve ever wanted but still couldn’t buy happiness and joy, you’d probably be as frustrated as King Solomon was.

A couple years ago, Hugh Hefner passed away. He was the founder of a magazine I don’t even feel like naming right now as I assume most of you know who he is. He became an icon to so many and lived a life of fame, luxury, women, and money that many people dream of. Yet, I remember hearing after he passed that those closest to him realized how incredibly alone and dissatisfied he really was. I read an article that details the sad, lonely life he lived and the constant battle with the fear of death. This makes sense if you think about it. If the only thing you had ever done with your life was spend time and energy trying to please yourself and ignoring the fact that you have no idea when your time will be up or what happens after that, you’d be terrified of the end too. Fortunately, unlike Mr. Hefner, King Solomon came to his senses before it was too late and learned that “fearing God and keeping his commandments are the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

I wonder if James, the brother of Jesus, had Solomon in mind as he wrote his letter to the early church. He also had a perspective on what it means to chase after things that can never satisfy. While Solomon referred to it as a “chasing after the wind," James simply recognized it as futile and unsuccessful pursuing. In James 4:1-3, he sees that human beings have these sinful desires which cause us to battle with one another, to want what others have, to build up an attitude of anger and resentment towards them, and to try to find fulfillment apart from God. This bitter and unsatisfying pursuit of whatever it is our flesh desires leads to “fights and quarrels,” even with other believers. If we know that God is our eternal and ultimate fulfillment but we keep trying to find worldly, temporary pleasure anyway, we’ll have no time for that which benefits others. How would benefitting someone else serve the ultimate goal of getting what the SELF desires? And if we have no time or reason to care for what’s best for someone else, we begin to see everyone else as a rival, someone who either already has or is trying to get the same things we are.

James says that not only does this lifestyle result in fights and quarrels, but it also results in effectively murdering others. Using that word in this context was probably shocking to the readers of James’ letter, but it was deliberately intended to be so. James probably remembers his brother’s teaching on murder during Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:21-22, Jesus explains that the act of murder is merely the result of the true problem in the person’s heart. He said this because it was common for the Jewish teachers to preach against murder while ignoring their own hatred for others. Jesus taught the listening crowd that to “murder” someone with words or within one’s heart causes that one to be “in danger of the fire of hell." He would follow the same line of thinking and teaching in regards to adultery in Matthew 5:27-28, declaring that looking at another lustfully is no different than committing the act itself.

Later on, James explains that we “kill” others in order to get what we want, but we still can’t get it anyway. While certainly, people have been physically murdered over jealousy and covetousness (think of Uriah the Hittite once David had slept with his wife and needed to try to cover it up), the reality is that many even in the church today fall into the trap of running down the reputation of another in order to build themselves up. This happens when one person wants the job another has, when one person gets the praise another deserves, and even when one person is pursuing a love interest who is already involved with another.

Ultimately, the truth of this passage is that if we are desiring something that we don’t have, the One we should be seeking is God Himself. James says that the biggest reason we often don’t have what we desire is because we don’t ask God. We refuse to pray and instead just try to get what we want on our own. James knows that even many sinful desires are rooted in voids in our lives that God has allowed to be there. For example, the sinful and lustful desires for sex that drag so many people down are merely the twisting of God’s good plan for sex by the devil himself. If you are desiring sexual intimacy, knowing God created that desire within you, don’t allow the devil or the world to use it to trap you. Simply ask God to meet that need for you by bringing you a spouse, and then TRUST HIM to provide that person in the timing HE knows is best. Feel free to apply this same logic to anything else you desire.

Finally, James says that even when we do ask God for things, God knows our heart and knows that we have impure and selfish motives. Using the same example as the above paragraph, some people earnestly seek the Lord for a spouse, but their motivation is solely based on what that spouse can do FOR them. If that’s you, ask God to bring you a mate who you can serve and grow WITH. The same is true with a job, house, car, or money that you seek. If God were to give you those things, what would you do with them? How would you use them to glorify His name? Psalm 37:4 says, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." Jesus echoed this in Matthew 6:33: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Which kingdom are you seeking, His or yours? If we seek Him first and delight in Him first, you better believe He’ll give us what we desire in our hearts because He will have changed our hearts to be in line with His. God wants you to be satisfied and content in Him. If you reject this and keep trying to find it elsewhere, you’ll just continue chasing the wind, something you could never catch.

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