A Teens Bible

James 4:3

NIV: When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

NCV: Or when you ask, you do not receive because the reason you ask is wrong. You want things so you can use them for your own pleasures.

Meaning: People always say that God answers prayers. Of course he does, but not all the time. Because we're human, we desire things we want for ourselves, not things we need necessarily. So when we ask for things for our own purposes, he won't answer those prayers. We become selfish and think that we can pray for anything and it'll just appear to us. But that's not exactly how God works. He likes when you pray for others, for example to heal from sickness or injury, or if someone's going through a tough time. Im not saying you cant pray for yourself. Praying about a test coming up, or praying that you get healed, or things like that . The selfish things that wont get answered are " I pray that ill win the lottery today". You're praying for that because your being selfish and you want the money for your own personal reasons. Prayer is a powerful thing if its used for the right reasons. So think about what your praying for next time, is it something God would want?

This is a video that I was shown at my youth. Its Francis Chan and hes an amazing speaker, very inspiring! Anyways this is only a short part of what I was shown because unfortunately I couldn't find the full version :/ This part of the video isnt the scene that talks about what i was sharing but its still great to watch. Go watch more of his videos please! I strongly encourage it!!!

-Megan