Re:Verse passage – James 4:1-12 (day three)
“You do not have because you do not ask.”
The Lord told Moses to speak to the rock, not strike it. That is, Moses was to request, not coerce, and water would flow. Jesus said to knock – not force your way in – and the door would be opened. The way of the Lord in heaven and earth is the ask. To ask is to humble yourself before the one to whom you are making a request – or in Moses’s case, even before the thing to which you are making a request. James points out that the kind of exchange that often passes for “asking” is actually a type of manipulative sleight of hand which seeks only to benefit your own desires without thought for the welfare of another. When you ask, you make possible a fellowship of joy born of giving and receiving.
