Day Four: Are You Asking?

James 4:2-3 “You do not have because you do not ask. You ask 
and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend 
it on your pleasures.”

   Have you ever wondered why some prayers go unanswered?
Sometimes the timing of our prayers is not right. At other times our
prayers may be focused on wrong issues, or our motives or intent
in asking may be off track. And, as hard as it is to admit, there may
be those times when we do not see answered prayer because we
simply have not prayed about a matter. Andrew Murray, South
African pastor and theologian, once said, “God must give, we must
ask.” His statement reminds us that as followers of Christ our role
in prayer is not to tell God how to answer our prayers, or when to
answer our prayers. We are to be faithful in our task of asking.
   In today’s text, James challenges believers to evaluate their
faithfulness in asking and to be sure that they pray with proper
motives. If the church is going to be faithful to take the gospel to
the world, we must be faithful first to ask, and then to trust God
to do the answering! Paul reminds us in Ephesians 3:20 that when
God answers prayer it is usually, “exceedingly abundantly above
all that we ask or think.” Will we ask? And will we ask with the right
motives?

Prayer Points
   • Pray for the Holy Spirit to search you for wrong motives in prayer
   • Pray for faithfulness and discipline in your personal prayer life

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