A Blooming Prayer Life James 4:3

2You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.



Prayer is a wonderful thing. There are three things that stand out in these two verses. The first thing that Paul mentions in talking about our prayer is that we do not have because we do not ask. Prayer is the most underused privilege that we have as God’s children. God expects us to come to Him in prayer and that time alone with God is what brings His blessings into our lives. Our lives as a child of God are severely lacking if we do not avail ourselves to the practice of prayer on a daily basis.

The second reason that Paul says about prayer is when we do ask, we ask amiss because we ask for the wrong things! When we come to God with requests that satisfy our own lusts and our own sinful desires, we can be sure that God is not going to give us those requests. The desire of God’s heart is to bless us and He will not give us things that will take us farther away from Him!

There is a third provision in this passage that is not as easy to see. Paul says, “You lust and do not have.” In James we read, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” How we live our lives determines the effectiveness of our prayers. The truth is simple. God is able to bless us when our lives reflect His presence. Disobedience robs God of the opportunity to do the things that He so much wants to do for us. Disobedience is the real root of our problems when it comes to prayer or a lack of prayer in our lives!

A disobedient spirit keeps us from praying in the first place and it causes us to ask amiss when we do pray! Ask God today for His wisdom in praying and ask Him for the strength to do what He tells you to do so that you can be the person that He wants you to be. Your prayer life will begin to change as your walk with Him takes a new direction!