The source of unrest

JAMES 4:1-3  Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from?  Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?  You want something and do not have it, so you commit murder.  And you covet something and cannot obtain it, so you engage in disputes and conflicts.  You do not have, because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive, because you as wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your own pleasures... 'God opposes the proud, but gives Grace to the humble.'"

We are at unrest in our nation, because we want FOR OUR SELVES what we want and when we want it.  Like spoiled children, when we don't get what we want and when we want it, someone else has to pay.  We have a strong sense of entitlement to HAVE in abundance, so we EXPLOIT our own people and people across the world to get it.

Rather than ask for those things that do not only feed our own pleasures, we demand what we want and when we want it to please only our selves, and ignore the needs of others whom God loves. We get what we can on the backs of others and at their expense.  We set up systems that allow us to do that at will, and wonder why we have such difficult turmoil in our nation and in the world.  It is not because God does not answer prayer.  It is because we have walked away from any decency, any concern and any consideration of what God wants.

Those with power in business do WHATEVER it takes to keep others with collective power from gaining for their families, all for their own larger profit margins.

Our corporations manipulate the World Trade Organization to make laws that benefit only our companies above whole other nations and their good.

Politicians, in the pockets of corporations, write laws that hurt the powerless and voiceless in favor of those with power and wealth, so that they can further exploit the powerless and voiceless for more profit for themselves.

Individuals keep the corrupt politicians in office because they either benefit from these practices, or hope to be included among the very wealthy someday - for most, neither of which comes to fruition.

Submitting to God and conforming to God's will means working for justice which brings peace.  Where there is no justice in the world, there can be no peace.  Until we commit to justice for ALL in ALL nations and not just our own, for ALL people and not just some, our nation's well-being will be in jeopardy.

According to James, the New Testament prophet, it is our adultery with God.  We run off unfaithfully to please our idols... greed, lust for power, desire for prestige - OUR SELVES.  We will not have
well-being in our nation or in the world, until we strive for justice for ALL.  THEN there will be PEACE!  THEN God will be pleased, and ALL those whom God loves will have enough.