For anyone who has ever felt that God is not listening to their prayers, this one’s for you 😉
What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
James 4:1-3 NLT
1 You don’t have what you want, because you don’t ask for it
Have you forgotten the face of your Father? Have you forgotten who He is, how powerful He is, and how magnificent? He is the creator of the earth; He is the master of the universe!
Have you forgotten how much He loves? He overflows with it! He is the physical and spiritual embodiment of it! He is generous to the point of recklessness. He manifests it in ways that we don’t understand or imagine.
2 You don’t get what you ask for because your motives are all wrong
Check yourself before you wreck yourself! God created you, and He knows you so well — even better than you know yourself. He can see inside your heart. He can read your mind. You can profess to be a Christian all day long, but He. Knows. Your. Heart. He knows you from the inside out.
And what’s even better, He knows what’s best for you. More so than you know yourself.
Which means that even though you might think that you have the right intentions, the right motivations, child, you really might not. And God in His loving, peaceful way, steers you towards what He knows to be right for you. The best possible choice. The best possible outcome.
This aged well. Classic teaching, straight to the point, yet meaty enough to still mean something. Refreshingly succinct.
And also, calling me out a little bit.
I would also add another point: “You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it.”
It relates to the third point in that, you have to check the things you are praying for to make sure they are aligned with God’s purpose.
But it also stands by itself as a reminder to make sure that, even if we have confirmed that the things that we want are aligned with God’s purpose, the way that we go about acquiring them should still be Godly. We should preserve our integrity, remain Christians, throughout every endeavor. No scheming or killing allowed haha.