Why do we have such conflict in our lives? James proposes that they come from our desires that battle within us. James continues in the same vein to say that we do not have what we desire because we do not ask God. When we do ask, we don’t receive because we ask with wrong motives, concerned with our pleasures. We are promised that if we first, submit ourselves to God; second, resist the devil; that he will flee from us. The power to distance ourselves from the devil does not come from ‘resisting’ (though that certainly plays a role—that we must do) it instead originates in ‘Coming near to God and he will come near to you.’ God examines our hearts; our desires and motives.