John Calvin Commentary James 4:3

"Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend [it] in your pleasures." — James 4:3 (ASV)

Ye seek and receive not. He goes further: though they sought, yet they were deservedly denied, because they wished to make God the minister of their own lusts. For they set no bounds to their wishes, as he had commanded, but gave unbridled license to themselves, to ask for those things of which a person, conscious of what is right, ought especially to be ashamed. Pliny somewhere ridicules this impudence, that people so wickedly abuse the ears of God. Such a thing is less tolerable in Christians, who have been given the rule of prayer by their heavenly Master.

Undoubtedly, there appears to be in us no reverence for God, no fear of him—in short, no regard for him—when we dare to ask of him what even our own conscience does not approve.

James meant briefly this: that our desires ought to be bridled, and the way of bridling them is to subject them to the will of God. He also teaches us that what we wish for in moderation, we ought to seek from God himself. If this is done, we will be preserved from wicked contentions, fraud, violence, and from doing any injury to others.