James 4: 3-5 - You ask, and you do not receive, because you ask badly, to spend on your delights. (4) Oh adulterous souls! Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity against God? Anyone, then, who wants to be a friend of the world, becomes an enemy of God. (5) Or do you think the Scripture says in vain: The Spirit that he has made dwell in us yearns for us jealously?
Prayer is an instrument of war, not a magic bar to satisfy our earthly desires. Maintaining a war mentality will help us avoid bad requests.
John Piper: Prayer is not a domestic intercom, but rather a war walkie-talkie.
If you accept a thought or philosophy that undermines the biblical structure for the family, that annihilates the moral values that protect and dignify the woman, that approves the murder of the unborn child ... you are adulterating in your heart. You cannot carry two labels that are opposed. Isn't it hypocrisy to call yourself a Christian and support currents of thought that contradict the teachings that constitute you as such? Today I invite you to decide: what are you? Meditate it calmly because that adultery of thought makes you an enemy of God.
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The word teaches that you can pray incorrectly. "You ask badly." You pray badly when what you ask of God is based on material matters. The apostle James calls it adultery. Our translation of the Bible says "Oh adulterous souls," but in the original it is a single word, "adulteresses."
When you ask God for material things, you are being unfaithful to God. It is possible to ask God for a material good and for him not to grant it to us because that good would be the object of idolatry, which is the same as spiritual adultery.
Notice verses 4 and 5.
Oh adulterous souls! Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity against God? Anyone, then, who wants to be a friend of the world, becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think the Scripture says in vain: The Spirit that he has made dwell in us longs for us jealously?
Your delight must be God and not that God is a means to achieve things you love more than God.
Matthew 7: 7 says: Ask and it will be given to you.
Is Matthew 7: 7- an exhortation to use God as the genie of Aladdin's lamp? No. It is clear that the point of the promise of Matthew 7: 7-11 is to confidently ask for the grace necessary to live the Christian life, for God will grant it to you.
Something that can help us see and use prayer correctly is recognizing that it is a weapon of war. In Ephesians 6, the apostle Paul describes to us what are our spiritual weapons to fight.
Ephesians 6: 17-19 - And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; (18) praying at all times with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching over it with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints; (19) and for me, so that when I open my mouth I will be given word to boldly make known the mystery of the gospel,
Prayer is an instrument of war, not a magic bar to satisfy our earthly desires. Maintaining a war mentality will help us avoid bad requests. Prayer is not a domestic intercom, but rather a war walkie-talkie. That is how our prayers should be. Everything we ask must be to contribute to the cause of the war. Pray for everything for the glory of God.
“Therefore I say to you: Do not worry about your life, what you have to eat or what you have to drink; not for your body, what are you to wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? (26) Look at the birds of the sky, who do not sow, nor reap, nor gather in barns; and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? (27) And who among you may, no matter how much he be concerned, add an elbow to his stature? (28) And for the dress, why do you worry? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they don't work or spin; (29) But I tell you, not even Solomon with all his glory dressed like one of them. (30) And if the grass of the field that it is today, and tomorrow is thrown in the oven, God dresses it like this, will it not do much more to you, men of little faith? (31) Do not worry, then, saying: What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? (32) Because the Gentiles seek all these things; but your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. (33) But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (34) So, do not worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will bring his eagerness. Every day its own evil is enough. ”(Matthew 6: 25-34)
1 John 5: 13-15
“13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe in the name of the Son of God. 14 And this is the confidence we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests we have made. ”
Will there be a requirement to receive what you ask for?