The book of James records tests of faith to decide whether someone possesses saving faith.  A saved man is not double minded.  He chooses what God wants because He believes that.  He’s not tossed around like a wave of the sea.

A test arises in man’s lust.  Rather than depending on God, He lusts and desires to have.  He’s more of a friend of the world than he is of God.  Someone that doesn’t want to do what God wants, which manifests itself in not praying for what God wants, isn’t submitted to God or humble.  In general, God will resist that person.  It is pride and a barrier to the grace of God.

In and of itself, it isn’t a sin to go into a city, buy, sell, and get gain (James 4:13).  It is a sin to do that if God wants you to be doing something else.  Doing what is merely permissible is not a replacement for doing what God wants you to do.  When you know to do good and you don’t do it, that is, you do something just permissible or lawful, it’s still sin, even though there isn’t anything wrong with it in and of itself.

People in heaven always do the will of God.   They always to what God wants.  Our overarching or overriding presupposition should be to do the will of God.  Our life isn’t long enough to do both what we want and what God wants (James 4:14).  We ought to be saying, if the Lord will, we will do this or that (James 4:15).  This is a test of faith.  Faith doesn’t come down to doing merely what is lawful or permitted to do, but doing what God wants.  He that enters into the kingdom of heaven is he who as a lifestyle does the will of God (Matthew 7:21), because he is the one who genuinely believes.

When as a habit we do not do what God wants, we’re being covetous, which is idolatry.  We are putting what we want ahead of what God wants.  One reason cities are not being evangelized, even though there are hundreds of professing Christians in them or near them, is because those professing Christians care less about what God wants than they do about what they want.  God cares about evangelism, but they don’t, or at least they don’t care enough about it.

When the choice arises for a true believer to do what he wants, he will combat that temptation.  He will as a practice, want nothing.  He will stand up to that temptation as a regular lifestyle.  He will endure the temptation, that is, be patient.  His life isn’t about what He wants, but about what God wants.

The world says, do what you want, but faith overcomes the world.  Faith sees a continuing city, whose builder and maker is God.  Faith sees the lasting nature of what God wants and the temporality of what I want.