Why You Ask and Do Not Receive James 4:3

James questioned the people within the “twelve tribes scattered abroad” from where their “wars and fightings” came. He noted that it was their “lusts” that warred in their “members”, and though they desired to have, they could not “obtain”. Though they “fight and war”, they did not have because they “ask not”. In chapter four and verse three of his letter, James continued his discourse on asking and not receiving where we read:

You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts.

The verse begins, “You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss,...” James began with the words, “You ask” or “beg, call for, crave, desire and require” “and receive not” which means “do not take with the hand, lay hold of, claim or procure any person or thing in order to use it”, “because” or “on account of and for” “you ask amiss” which means “James' readers beg, call for, crave, desire and require in a miserable, ill, improper, wrong and reviling way”. The reason James' readers were not laying hold of what they “asked” was because they asked for things in an “improper, ill and reviling” manner.

The verse goes on to say, “...that you may consume it upon your lusts.” James continued, “that you may consume it” which means “incur expense, expend, spend, waste and squander” “upon your lusts” which refers to “in, by and with James' readers' desires for pleasure and sensual delight”. The improper manner in which they asked was to fulfill their own “desires for pleasure and sensual delight”.

When we consider these words of James, we begin to understand how prayer is never to get our own “desires” filled, but rather to accomplish the will of the Lord. Many times God does not answer our prayers in the affirmative because we ask for things in a selfish way which is “improper, ill, wrong and reviling”. If we are to receive that for which we ask, then we must align ourselves with the will of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. It is to be His will that is done and not our own. May we learn to seek the face of the Lord, ask according to His will, and turn aside from any form of prayer that is meant solely to “consume it upon our own lusts”.

Next time James shares how “the friendship of the world is enmity with God ”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

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