James 4:3

‘You ask, and do not receive, because you ask for the wrong reasons, that you may spend (dissipate) it in your pleasures.'

And even when they do sometimes ask God for it they still do not receive satisfaction of heart. And that is because their motives are wrong. The failure is due to the fact that they ask for the wrong reasons, because their motives are totally selfish. Their sole aim is simply to enjoy the fulfilment of their earthy desires and aims. They want to dissipate whatever benefit that they obtain on pleasure. They reason that they want what they are asking for because it will enable them to use it up for their own worldly satisfaction. They are caught up in the vortex of the world. Their heart is not really on God.

There is an important lesson for us all here concerning prayer. It reminds us that God is not there just to give us whatever we decide that we want. His promises with respect to prayer are not open-ended but are given to those who are seeking to fulfil His will, and in order to help them in the fulfilment of that will. Thus, if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me (Psalms 66:18), for the eyes of the Lord are towards the righteous, and His ear is open to their cry, while the face of the Lord is against evildoers (Psalms 34:15). For the fact is that He is only near to those who call on Him in truth (Psalms 145:18). It is if we ‘ask anything in accordance with His will' that He hears us, so that we can know then that we will receive an answer to our prayers (1 John 5:14). For the promise ‘ask and you will receive, seek and you will find' is not with regard to anything we choose, but has in mind the seeking of the good things of God, and especially the Holy Spirit (Matthew 7:7; Luke 11:9). Thus when we dare to pray ‘for Jesus' sake' we must ensure that we are praying for what Jesus would want us to have. We cannot ask in His Name for what is contrary to His will.