Are Your Prayers Being Answered? (James 4:1-3)
James obviously had information about what life
was like in the gatherings of Christians to which he sent this letter. Instead
of being places of peace and fellowship they were the opposite. He wants them
to consider where they are and how they arrived there, and also what one of the
major consequences was. And he does this by asking straightforward questions,
by getting them to think about their situation.
There is an important
historical lesson here. Often the impression is given that the New Testament
church was wonderful for a long time. Certainly, we see a happy church
described in Acts 2:42 with its mention of its four activities of continuing in
the apostles’ doctrine, in fellowship, in breaking of bread and in prayers. Yet
we should ask, ‘How long did this harmony last for?’ The answer is that it did
not last for long, as we can read in the Book of Acts with the accounts of the
failure to look after needy widows and the attempted deceit of Ananias and
Sapphira. And we are only a couple of years on from there when we read the
letter of James. If it happened to them, it can happen in any church, including
ours. Indeed, the history of the Christian church tells us that it happens
frequently.
It probably helps to
recall the background of those to whom James was writing. His readers were Jews
and before their conversion they would have been identified with different
groups. Some would have been Pharisees, some would have been Zealots, some
would have connections with the other religious groups found with Judaism. The
obvious detail from their background was that they liked to engage in
disagreements with one another that often descended into outrageous and sinful
behaviour. And it may be the case that those past differences might have
resurfaced in the difficult situations they were now facing.
A call to
realism
The first question that he asks is, ‘What causes
quarrels and what causes fights among you?’ (v. 1). This description may not
have been the one that those believers would have used of themselves. Instead
they might have preferred to be known as Jews who had found the Messiah or even
as believers who had made great sacrifices for the faith (probably they were
the believers in Jesus who had been forced to leave Jerusalem during the
persecution that followed the death of Stephen). Such descriptions would have
been true, but they would not have been the whole truth. If all they focussed
on was those kinds of features, then they were not facing reality. The reality
was that their prayers were not being answered, and James wanted them to focus
on why that was the case.
Of course, James is not
forbidding all disagreements among Christians. There will be situations in
which Christians choose to differ amicably about what should be done to deal
with any aspects that need rectifying. Sometimes disagreements can be
indicators that people care deeply about something, and when they happen,
respect should be shown to other viewpoints. But when disagreements descend
into quarrelling and hostility, prayer becomes the victim, even when we still
say verbal prayers. The point that James is making is that we should always be
realistic and truthful about all situations.
A call to
recognize their sinfulness
If someone had asked the recipients of this letter
about the source of their troubles, they would have pointed outwardly. They
might have pointed to their persecutors, they might have pointed to their
circumstances, they might have pointed to the ones with whom they were
disagreeing. The assessment that the source was outward is wrong, says James.
Instead the problem is inward – note how he changes from ‘among you’ to ‘within
you’.
James identifies the
source of the problem as the ongoing breaking of the tenth commandment, ‘You
shall not covet…’ Sometimes people imagine that James and Paul were at
loggerheads. Here, they agree on the power of the tenth commandment, because
Paul mentions in Romans 7 that it was the application of his failure to keep
this commandment that brought home to him that he was a sinner.
We can see from James’
method here that it is appropriate for a Christian teacher to use the law to
bring about conviction of sin. In doing this, James was imitating the practice
of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. The law is God’s plan for appropriate
living by his people. It is a guide for how we are to live, and that guidance
is not limited to outward behaviour. James here focuses on how our feelings
work out in practice.
James does not say what it
was that they were wanting so strongly – the only clue that he provides is when
he says that their desires were expressions of worldliness (v. 4). Whatever it
was that they wanted, it was not provided for them. The failure to get what
they wanted then led them to break the sixth commandment, ‘You shall not kill.’
I doubt if James is saying that they literally committed murder. Instead he
probably has in mind what Jesus taught when he applied the sixth commandment to
attitudes of anger and hatred (Matt. 5:21-22).
The analysis of James of
their situation is a continuation of what he had written about the wrong use of
words in the previous chapter. Instead of speaking together about the things of
God and helping one another they were arguing with one another and opposing one
another. We can say that the symptoms of a deadly disease were obvious.
A call to
recognise their failure
It is obvious that the recipients of James’ letter
were very zealous and pursued their causes with energy. Yet he points out to
them that there was one defect in their outlook that stood out very clearly and
that was a lack of real prayer. It was not that they were not engaging in a
form of prayer, but what they were praying about was not an expression of true
prayer.
James points out that
their prayers were only an expression of their selfishness. They must have been
asking the Lord to give them something which they intended to use in an
inappropriate way. It should not be surprising to us that the Lord refused to
answer such requests. The obvious lesson from this detail is that sometimes
prayers reveal a person’s wrong desires.
How does this situation
come about? I suspect one reason is discontent with our providences. If the
readers of the letter were suffering the consequences of persecution, we can
see why they would have been desperate to escape from their situations. There
is nothing wrong with that desire. Yet maybe they so focussed on it that they
started to blame one another, perhaps a bit like how the Israelites started to
blame Moses when things went wrong after leaving Egypt.
Whether that was the case
or not, it is true that discontent with our providences had an adverse effect
on our prayer life because such discontent is a questioning of the love and
wisdom of God. We may be denied some things that we wanted, or we may receive
some things that we did not want. And when we don’t speak to God about them
correctly, we may speak to one another incorrectly about them.
A call to
pray correctly
All this leads to the obvious question, ‘How then
should we pray?’ James gives a very simple definition of prayer when he says
that it is asking God to do things. Often, the answer to a spiritual problem is
to ask, ‘How is your prayer life?’ So we can make some basic comments about
what James says here about prayer.
First, prayer is a
necessity marked by several necessities. We are all aware that prayer is a sign
of a real Christian. When the Lord sent Ananias to speak to Saul of Tarsus, he
described Saul as now praying (Saul would have said many prayers before then,
but he had never prayed until he was confronted by Jesus). Prayer should be the
automatic response of a Christian – I assume this is what Paul means when he
urged believers to continue in prayer. A Christian can be defined as a praying
person. So prayer is a necessity.
In addition, true prayer
is marked by three obvious necessities. One is that we must pray for the right
things. When we come to items for prayer, they come in two categories. One is
things that God has promised to give and the other is legitimate things that he
has not promised to give. We can expect him to give what he has promised, but
we cannot insist that he gives what he has not promised. James’ readers seem to
have abused the second category when they asked for material things. Also, we
must pray with the right spirit. It is obvious that James’ readers had a wrong
spirit when they prayed. Their motives for praying was selfish, focussed on how
they could improve their own circumstances, with the implication that they were
not too bothered about how others were getting on. And we must continue to
pray. This aspect of the necessity of prayer is seen in the present tense of
the verbs that James uses. Without ongoing prayer, there is no progress.
Second, how are we to
pray? As Spurgeon said in a sermon on this verse, ‘Asking is the rule of the
kingdom.’ He points out that even Jesus had to ask for his kingdom, that Elijah
had to ask for the promised rain, that Daniel had to ask for the promised
deliverance of the Jews from Babylon, and that Paul prayed about everything.
James say that if we don’t ask for something that God had promised, we should
not assume that it will be sent.
In his book on prayer, J.
I Packer writes, ‘In a broad sense, asking is the essence of praying. Whatever
else we do in religion builds around the activity of asking as its center.’ His
words remind us that we should do nothing for the kingdom without prayer. But
they also remind us that we can pray for anything in the kingdom.
Asking in prayer is
contact with the triune God. We can ask because the Father is listening, we can
ask because we are accepted in Jesus, and we can ask because we have the Spirit
of adoption in our hearts guiding our prayers. When we think about prayer in
this way, we see some of its richness.
Asking is straightforward,
specific and simple to test as far as answers are concerned. James Gilmour, a
missionary to Mongolia, gave this advice about prayer: ‘All I know about the
process is just going to God and telling what I want, and asking to be allowed
to have it. “Seek, and ye shall find; ask, and ye shall receive.” I know no
secret but this.’ He continued: ‘I have learned that the source of much
blessing is just to go to Jesus, and tell Him what you need.’
David McIntyre in his
classic book, The Hidden Life of Prayer, mentions eight features of asking God.
They are:
1. It is subject to the
Divine will –
‘This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according
to His will, He heareth us’ (1 John 5:14).
2. It is restrained within
the interest of Christ – ‘Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that
the Father may be glorified in the Son’ (John 14:13).
3. It is instructed in the
truth – ‘If
ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it
shall be done unto you’ (John 15:7).
4. It is energized by the
Spirit –
‘Able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to
the power that worketh in us’ (Eph. 3:20).
5. It is interwoven with
love and mercy –
‘And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any; that your
Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses’ (Mark 11:25).
6. It is accompanied with
obedience -
“Whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do
those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:22).
7. It is so earnest that
it will not accept denial - “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Luke 11:9).
8. It goes out to look
for, and to hasten its answer – ‘The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much’ (James 5:16).
It is good to remember
that, when we ask, God will give much more than we ask. Paul reminds us of this
in his doxology in Ephesians 3:20-21: ‘Now to him who is able to do far more
abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within
us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all
generations, forever and ever. Amen.’ But we have to ask.
So what can we say about
asking in prayer? Here are some suggestions that we may wish to think about.
Asking is
- an expression of confidence in God that he will keep his many great and precious promises;
- an expression of submission to God because he commands us to ask for things according to his will;
- an expression of our awareness of the authority that belongs to Jesus Christ when we ask in his name;
- an expression of fellowship as we ask God for spiritual blessings for one another.
- an expression that we want the name of God to be glorified throughout the earth.
- an expression that reveals the passions of our heart in a God-honouring way as we wrestle with him for specific answers.