You do not receive when you ask because you ask wrongly! James has some rather hard-hitting words for the community to whom he was writing. There seems to have been a war raging on in this community, a war that had arisen from what appears to be a failure by the members of the community to be submissive to the will of God. They wanted to fly before they could walk, so to speak. From James’ address, it appears there was too much ambition in the community. No one wanted to be the least/lesser. Everybody wanted to be the first, the best, and the greatest. And they wanted it now!
James reminds them (and us) that God is the giver of everything. Every good gift comes from God (cf. James 1:17). It is God who distributes the gifts according to God’s plans and purposes. There is no one who has a gift who did not receive it from God. The conflicts arising in the community were being brought by those who were taking God out of the equation, those who wanted it now, and those who did not want to wait. In other words, the conflicts resulted from individuals who wanted to provide for themselves. Such people, James says, will never have it, because they do not know how to ask. Relying solely on their strength, such are the people who court conflicts and brew trouble. James reminds the community that only the humble, those who recognize their insufficiency and inability to provide for themselves on their own strength, are the ones who know how to ask rightly. And when they do ask, they are given because they don’t put any condition before God. Most importantly, they display gratitude for whatever God gives them. The members of this community needed to stop looking at what they were lacking and instead focus their attention on what God had provided for them. Only then would they be able to raise their voices in thanksgiving to God for his gifts.