James Chapter 4 — Commentary on Verse 3

    When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

    In this verse he anticipates an objection. They might say, “We do ask and go to God in daily prayers.” The apostle answers, “You ask indeed; but because of your wrong motive, you cannot complain of not being heard. Do you want to make God a servant to your desires?” To convince them, he shows what the aim of their prayers was: the convenience of a worldly life. Youask… that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

    There are several points to note in this verse; they may be reduced to the three below:

    Notes on Verse 3

    Note1. We pray amiss when our ends and aims are not right in prayer. The purpose is a main element in every action and is the purest offspring of the soul. Practices and affections may be overruled; this is the genuine, immediate birth and issue of the human spirit. We may cite all sorts of actions here; we know their quality not by the matter, but the end. In things that are neutral in themselves, the nature of the action is altered by a wrong motive. To eat out of necessity is a duty we owe to nature; to eat out of wantonness is an effect of worldly desire. So in all things instituted and commanded, the end determines the action. When we make self the purpose of prayer, it is not worship of God but self-seeking. All our actions are to be referred and devoted to God; much more so with the acts that belong especially to the spiritual life, which is described in the words “live for God” (Galatians 2:19). That is the main difference between the worldly life and the spiritual; one is living for ourselves, the other is living for God. Especially, acts of worship are to be for God, for there the soul sets itself to glorify him. And as we address ourselves directly to him, we must not prostitute our addresses to a common use.

    So then, consider your motives in prayer—not just the manner, not just what you are asking for, but the purpose. It is not enough to look for intensity of feeling; many people make that all their work, to raise themselves into some liveliness of spirit, but they do not consider their aim. It is true that it is good to come with full sails; fervent prayer is like an arrow drawn with all your strength, but it must be godly prayer. A worldly spring may send out high tides of feeling; our worldly desires are usually very earnest. It is not enough to look for fluency; worldly affections and imagination joined together may engage the wit and set it working. It is not enough to make God the object of the prayer—he must be its purpose too. Duty is sometimes called “serving God,”

    serving denoting the object, and seeking denoting the end; in serving we must seek.

    Note2. Our ends and aims are wrong when we ask blessings for the use and encouragement of our worldly desires. There are several ways in which people sin with reference to the aim of prayer:

    (1)      When the end is grossly worldly and sinful. Some people seek God for their sins and want to engage the divine blessing on a revengeful and worldly enterprise, just as the thief lit his torch in order to steal by the lamps of the altar. Solomon says that the wicked offer sacrifice “with evil intent” (Proverbs 21:27).

    (2)      When people seek to gratify their worldly desires privately, they look on God as some great power who must serve them. They are like the man who came to Christ saying, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me” (Luke 12:13). We want something from God in order to satisfy our desires: health and long life, that we may live pleasantly; wealth, that we may live in luxury every day; estates, so we can improve our name and family; victory and success, to excuse ourselves from glorifying God by suffering, or to wreak our malice on enemies. The divine grace, by a vile submission and diversion, is forced to serve our vainglory. (3) When we pray for blessings with a selfish aim, and not with serious and actual designs of God’s glory, as when someone prays for spiritual blessings thinking only of his own ease and comfort, such as praying for pardon, heaven, grace, faith, repentance only in order to escape wrath. This is merely a worldly aspect of our own good and welfare. God wants us to think of our own comfort, but not only that. His glory is the pure spiritual aim. Then we seek these things with the same mind that God offers them: “to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves” (Ephesians 1:6). Your desires in asking are only right when they suit God’s purposes in giving. God’s glory is a better thing, and beyond our welfare and salvation. So it is too in temporal matters, when people desire outward provision merely in order to live more comfortably, not to serve God more cheerfully.

    So how shall I set about getting my motives right in prayer? This is a necessary question. Nothing makes us see the necessity of divine help for our prayers so much as this. To act for a holy purpose requires the presence of the Spirit of grace; supernatural acts need supernatural strength. It is true in these internal things that “flesh gives birth to flesh” (John 3:6). Water cannot rise higher than its fountain; nature by itself aims at its own welfare, ease, and preservation. Therefore, go to God; beg for uprightness—that is his gift as well as other graces. The help that we have from the Spirit is to make requests “in accordance with God’s will” (Romans 8:27), or, as it is in the original, “in accordance with God”—that is, to make godly requests for God’s sake. Besides, there should be much mortification; what lies uppermost will be expressed first: “out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).

    Note3. Prayers framed out of worldly motives are usually unsuccessful. God’s glory is the end of prayer and the beginning of hope, or else we can look for nothing. God never undertook to satisfy worldly desires. He will own no other voice in prayer but that of his own Spirit: “And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit” (Romans 8:27). What is a worldly groan, and what is a spiritual groan? Expressing a worldly aim is merely a request met with a divine refutation; it is the best way to be denied. Spiritual sighs and breathings are heard rather than worldly roarings.

    If you cannot ask for mercy well, you will seldom be able to use it well; there is more enjoyment in the temptation. Usually our hearts are more devout when we want a blessing than when we enjoy it; and therefore when our prayers are not directed to God’s glory, there is little hope that when we receive the talent we shall employ it for the Master’s use.

    Besides all this, prayers offered with a base motive greatly affront and dishonor God; you would make him a servant of his enemy: “Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins” (Isaiah 43:24, KJV; NIV, “You have burdened me with your sins”—Ed.note). We want to commit sin and want God to bless us in it. It is bad enough that you should be servants of sin, but that you should make God an accessory to your sin and yoke him with yourselves in the same service is not to be endured. So this teaches us what to do when our prayers are not granted. Let us not charge God foolishly but examine ourselves: were not our requests worldly? Suppose you prayed for life, and God left you to your own deadness; did your heart not fancy your own praise? If you prayed for safety, you wanted to live in ease, in pleasure; if you prayed for an estate, you were pleasing yourself in your ideas of greatness and esteem in the world. O brothers, as we care about success, let us not come to God with an evil mind! Holy desires are certainly answered (Psalm 10:17; 145:19).