James alludes to another reason God does not give in answer to prayer - wicked motives - which is separate from the asking in James 1:7, although in both the root cause is an absence of faith (eg, see Ro 14:23)

James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Do you have the experience that God answers your prayers? Or is the converse your experience? Either way, Torrey's topic below provides an excellent Scriptural overview of "Answers to Prayer." This topic would make an excellent small group Bible study - print out a selection of Scriptures under each subtopic (without Torrey's analysis) and simply observe what the text says, recording your observations which will lead to interpretation which should lead to personal application. This simple study will significantly impact the prayer life of your group. Paul says the impact is not just in this present passing life but in eternity future! Redeem the time! "Discipline yourself (in your prayer life) for the purpose of godliness for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come." (see notes 1Ti 4:7; 4:8)

For (1063)  (gar) means on account of this or that or for this reason. Gar is a conjunction that serves as a marker showing the cause or reason for something. As noted above, James uses this conjunction to introduce a second reason the reader must ask in faith without any doubting.

That man (ekeinos) - The one who is doubting.

Sinclair Ferguson writes that...
 

To doubt is to be uncertain about God and to feel isolated from Him; to suffer (Ed: as one often does when trial come into our life)  is to experience pain and to feel isolated from others. Giant Despair thus appears and imprisons us in what Bunyan aptly called “Doubting Castle.” (Read about the destruction of "Doubting Castle" in The Seventh Stage of Pilgrim's Progress) There, alone in the darkness, we begin to hear and believe the voices that say “there is no help for him in God” (Ps. 3:2). But it is not true that there is no help for us in God! Hear the testimony of others: “Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced” (Isa. 50:7); “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.… God will help … at break of day” (Ps. 46:1, 5).

The problem for the doubting sufferer, however, is that “break of day” has not yet come. It is still dark. When doubt is at its height and attacks most fiercely we ask, “Is there no light to help me through the night?” Indeed there is; but the prescribed antidote tends to work slowly. It is important for us, therefore, to complete the course.

Scripture’s account of genuine spiritual experience speaks to your situation. It describes your symptoms and illustrates the way of recovery. You are not unique. There is no test of faith that seizes us “except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear” (1Co 10:13-note). Great saints of God have been where you are now.

Think of Elijah, suffering from total exhaustion; he doubted God’s future purpose for his life and lay down to die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said (1 Kings 19:4). Here is Jeremiah, bravely facing being beaten and put in the stocks; he is a different man in private when the suffering catches up with him and he cries out, “O Lord, you deceived me, and I was deceived” (Jer. 20:7). There is John the Baptist, fearless in denouncing Herod’s immoral behavior yet he receives an unwelcome visit from doubt as he languishes in prison and anxiously sends to know whether Jesus really is the Messiah after all (Luke 7:19). (If you would like more information on this important topic of doubt from the perspective of some of the finest Christian minds of modern times I would strongly recommend procuring the book  edited by R C Sproul Doubt & Assurance. Page 33. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House)

Man (444) (anthropos) means man referring not to the male of the species but to humanity in general, male and female.

Ought...to expect (3633) (hoiomai) means to consider something to be true but with a component of tentativeness. It means to regard something as presumably true, but without particular certainty—to suppose, to expect, to presume, to assume, to imagine, to believe, to think, to mean, to intend. Note this is not a suggestion or a conclusion but is issued as a command (present imperative)

Hiebert explains that hoiomai...
 

implies "a subjective judgment which has feeling rather than thought for its ground."' It carries the collateral notion of an unwarranted judgment: "let not that man suppose." The negative me with the present imperative demands that he must stop entertaining any thought of receiving an answer to his prayer. (D Edmond Hiebert - James. Moody)

There are 3 uses of hoiomai in the NT, once in James, and in
 

John 21:25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose (present tense = continually) that even the world itself would not contain the books which were written

Philippians 1:17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, rather than from pure motives, thinking (present tense = continually) to cause me distress in my imprisonment.

There are 14 uses of hoiomai in the Septuagint (LXX) - Ge 37:7; 40:16; 41:1, 17; Esther 8:12; 9:12; Job 11:2; 34:12; 37:23; 38:2; 40:8; 42:3; Isa 57:8; Dan 2:11

Will receive (2983)  (lambano) means to take hold of, to grasp, to seize. Lambano can indicate either benevolent and hostile actions, and have as object either people or things; e.g. take a wife, collect taxes, accept a verdict, take a road, and figuratively take courage. It is used with a material subject, as when, for example, fear or terror seizes men.

Anything (1565) (ekeinos) according to BDAG "pertains to an entity mentioned or understood and viewed as relatively remote in the discourse - setting, that person, that thing." "Not...anything" refers to the things he or she has asked for in this context.

As someone has well said...
 

"Faith unlocks the divine storehouse, but unbelief bars its doors."

Para (3844)  (para) conveys the root meaning of beside, near, nearby expressing the idea of immediate vicinity or proximity. From the side of is the idea.

Lord (2962) (kurios) signifies sovereign power and absolute authority. It is the one who has absolute ownership and uncontested power.

Torrey's Topic
Answers to Prayer

Note: Hold mouse pointer over underlined links for pop up of Scripture (which stays open and can be copied).

Being - No verb is present, so that "being" is added by the NAS translators for continuity.

Man (435) (aner) is the Greek word for man in contrast to woman, but as he has just used the more general word anthropos in v7, it is not likely that he intends to make this gender specific.

Double minded - "Two souled" as if two distinct souls were effecting this man's attitudes and actions! One of the souls is oriented as it were toward God and trusts in God, while the other is oriented toward the natural world and disbelieves God. As one writer has put it James is describing a man who is "a walking civil war in which trust and distrust of God wage a continual battle against each other." John Bunyan in Pilgrims Progress (The Seventh Stage) gives a similar picture in his description of "Mr. Facing-both-ways"!

Double-minded (1374)  (dipsuchos from dís = twice + psuche = soul, mind) is an adjective which literally describes one who has two minds or one who is two-spirited and has been called one of the most picturesque words in the entire epistle. Dipsuchos is the one who hesitates or vacillates between two or more opinions, This person in a sense has a divided loyalty and is manifest by indecision and doubting. Some might see such a person as "fickle" (marked by lack of steadfastness, constancy, or stability -- given to erratic changeableness). This is the man or woman who is uncertain about the truth of something, in this case the truth and sovereign, omnipotent power of God.

The field mouse who illustrated James "Double-minded man" - Driving in country at night when headlights showed up a field mouse dead ahead. He first started toward the left, then right, then left, and finally stood still as the car passed over him.

A similar thought is described in the OT passages which describe a person with a divided (versus a whole) heart (1Ki8:61, 11:4, 15:3,14, 2Ki20:3, 1Ch12:38, 28:9, 29:19, 2Ch15:17, 16:9, 19:9, 25:2).

James helps define double-minded as one who is unstable. This is the person who lacks integrity, who claims one thing and lives another. This is the hypocrite in the assembly of believers.

The Puritan writer Thomas Manton says that...

The word signifies a person who has two souls, and so it may imply:

(1) A hypocrite, since the same word is used with that meaning in Jas 4:8 : “Purify your hearts, you double-minded.” As he speaks to open sinners to cleanse their hands, so he speaks to secret hypocrites (whom he calls double-minded since they pretend one thing but mean another) to purify their hearts—that is, to grow more inwardly sincere. This word is similar to the Hebrew word for “deceive.” “Their flattering lips speak with deception” (Psalm 12:2); in the Hebrew this is “with a heart and a heart,” which is their way of expressing something that is double or deceitful (deceitful weights are “a weight and a weight” in the Hebrew of Pr 20:23). As Theophrastus says of the partridges of Paphlagonia that they had two hearts, so every hypocrite has two hearts or two souls.

(2) It implies a person who is distracted and divided in his thoughts, floating between two different opinions, as if he had two minds or two souls. In the apostle’s time there were some Judaizing brethren who sometimes sided with the Jews, sometimes with the Christians. They were not settled in the truth. See also 2Kings 17:33 , “They worshiped the Lord , but they also served their own gods”; they were divided between God and idols. The prophet says this shows a double or divided heart: “Their heart is deceitful, and now they must bear their guilt” ( Hosea 10:2 ). Thus Athanasius applied this description to the Eusebians, who sometimes held one thing and then another.

(3) In the context of James this may refer to those whose minds were tossed to and fro with various ideas: now lifted up with a wave of presumption, then cast down in a gulf of despair, being torn between hopes and fears concerning their acceptance with God. I prefer this latter sense, as it conveys the apostle’s purpose best. (Manton, T. Exposition of James)

Unstable.(182) (akatastatos from a = not + kathistemi = to settle from kata = down + histemi = to stand) describes one who is unsettled, unsteady, unstable, staggering, reeling like a drunken man. Vacillating in all one's activity and conduct, because he or she lacks a solid foundation which predisposes to unsteadiness and wobbling.

James has the only other NT use in his description of our speech noting sadly...

Jas 3:8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless (cp "the restless sea" - continuously moving!) evil and full of deadly poison.

There is one use in the Septuagint...

Is 54:11 "O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, Behold, I will set your stones in antimony, And your foundations I will lay in sapphires.

Manton writes that...

An unstable man has no constancy of soul. He is sometimes ready to depart from God and sometimes to be close to him; he is not settled in his religious profession. (Ibid)

All (pas) means all in an all inclusive sense. In all his conduct or behavior is the idea.

Ways (3598) (hodos) literally refers to a way along which one travels, such a road, street, highway or path and then speaks of a trip or journey (Mt 10:10, Mk 6:8, Lk 9:3). Figuratively, as used in the present passage, hodos speaks of one's course of behavior or way of life. In other words, life itself is compared to a way or a road one travels.

Hiebert adds that...

"in all his ways," is a Hebraism depicting his personal conduct (Ps 91:11; 145:17; Pr 3:6; Je 16:17). The plural "all his ways" encompasses all the varied aspects of his life. His fickle and vacillating attitude in the realm of faith projects itself into all the areas of his life making him unreliable in all of his dealings. "The man who does not trust God cannot be trusted by men."' There is a close connection between the way a man prays and the way he lives. "Since the resting place of our will is the will of God found in prayer, a division at the centre destroys unity and force of character, and this produces instability in the whole range of conduct."  (Ibid)

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