YOU DO NOT HAVE BECAUSE YOU DO NOT ASK

Passage: James 4:1-6

Key verse: 2c

NIV

Submit Yourselves to God

4 What causes fights and quarrels(A) among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle(B) within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill.(C) You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive,(D) because you ask with wrong motives,(E) that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

4 You adulterous(F) people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world(G) means enmity against God?(H) Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.(I) 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us[b]?(J) 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud
    but shows favor to the humble.”[c](K)

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Footnotes
  1. James 4:4 An allusion to covenant unfaithfulness; see Hosea 3:1.
  2. James 4:5 Or that the spirit he caused to dwell in us envies intensely; or that the Spirit he caused to dwell in us longs jealously
  3. James 4:6 Prov. 3:34
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Source: BibleGateway

ESV

Warning Against Worldliness

4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions[a] are (A)at war within you?[b] 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask (B)wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 (C)You adulterous people![c] Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? (D)Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit (E)that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But (F)he gives more grace. Therefore it says, (G)“God opposes the proud but (H)gives grace to the humble.”

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Footnotes
  1. James 4:1 Greek pleasures; also verse 3
  2. James 4:1 Greek in your members
  3. James 4:4 Or You adulteresses!
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Source: BibleGateway

1. Because you do not ask God (1-2)

Why do people fight and quarrel with others? It is because they have a war going on inside themselves. They want something, and they try to get it by any means. God's people should not struggle with men because of their desires. If we have a strong desire, we should ask God. He loves us. He did not spare even his own Son, but gave him up for us. If what we want is what we really need, he will give it to us--if we just ask him. He wants us to pray and to depend on him.

2. Because you have wrong motives (3-6)

Sometimes we do ask, but we don't receive. Why? It is because we have wrong motives. Worldly people make pleasure-seeking their main occupation. They are friends of the world, and a friend of the world is an enemy of God. Worldly pleasures only make us want more. A godless person is never satisfied. God alone can satisfy the desires of our hearts. He will do so if we ask him with pure and humble hearts.

Prayer: Thank you, Father, for giving me the desires of my heart. Teach me to pray.

One Word: Struggle with God, not men