3 When you pray for things, you don’t get them because you want them for the wrong reason—for your own pleasure.
4 You unfaithful people! Don’t you know that love for this ⌊evil⌋ world is hatred toward God? Whoever wants to be a friend of this world is an enemy of God.
5 Do you think this passage means nothing? It says, “The Spirit that lives in us wants us to be his own.”
6 But God shows us even more kindness. Scripture says,“God opposes arrogant people,but he is kind to humble people.”
7 So place yourselves under God’s authority. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you.
8 Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Clean up your lives, you sinners, and clear your minds, you doubters.
9 Be miserable, mourn, and cry. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into gloom.