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NASB | James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | James 4:3 You ask [God for something] and do not receive it, because you ask with wrong motives [out of selfishness or with an unrighteous agenda], so that [when you get what you want] you may spend it on your [hedonistic] desires. |
Bible Question: Last year, we bought a used car because our minivan's transmission sort of quit working (making the vehicle useless unless we spent a lot of money on transmission repairs). The "new" car seemed to run fine when we bought it last summer. I checked everything I could think of on the car, to get it ready for winter. The heater was so hot it could drive everybody out of the car when we checked it in the summertime. But when winter finally came, and the weather got very cold, the heater hardly blew any warm air at all. The defroster was pretty useless, since it would not even melt INSIDE ice which was basically frozen moisture from people breathing inside the car! I prayed about it because we had to be able to take our son to and from school daily, and it was a safety hazard trying to drive a car with impaired visibility. I even "reminded" God about James 4:3, and that I could not "consume on my lust" adequate heating or defrosting of the windows in our newly acquired 17 year old car (a 1993 model with over 140k miles on it). I asked for adequate heat in that car, but I did not receive what I asked for. Why not? The ONLY reason cited in James 4:3, for asking but NOT receiving, was "... because ye ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts."! Does anyone have any idea why my prayers for adequate heat in that car were not answered, or can anyone describe how I (or any member of my family) could possibly consume adequate heat and a working defroster upon our collective lusts? |
Bible Answer: Dear biblenovice, What you have presented here is a called a false dichotomy. You are asserting that either you asked amiss or the Scriptures are not true. There is, of course, more than two possible answers. Indeed, Scripture speaks of a number of things that can hinder prayers. Regardless, I hear very little gratitude for His having provided a car. After all, He protected you in all that driving of your son. As a parent no doubt you have experienced providing a healthy meal for your child, only to have them complain about not getting ice cream for dinner. The child is certain that if you really loved them, you would give them what they wanted. There is no third alternative in their thinking. Arguing from the particular to the general is always problematic. Furthermore, I cannot speak for God's intentions in the specific instance that you have brought to us. However, some things I do know: God is infinitely loving, so His response to you could not be out of indifference (Titus 3:3-5; Romans 8:32); God is infinitely wise, so His response to you could not be the consequence of error (Colossians 2:3); God is all knowing, so His response to you could not be the result of His lacking sufficient information (1 John 3:20; John 10:29-30); God is all powerful, so His response to you could not be from a lack of ability (Jeremiah 23:17; Luke 18:27). Remember, we do not judge God's nature by what He does. Rather we judge what He does, by His nature. In Him, Doc |