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James 4:3
And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.
James 4:3 · Berean Standard Bible
James 4:3 in other translations
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
You ask, and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures.
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In context
1 What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?
2 You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask.
3 And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.
4 You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.
5 Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy?
6 But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
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