The rewards for the toils of virtue are dispassion and spiritual knowledge. For these are mediators of the kingdom of heaven, just as passions and ignorance are mediators of eternal punishment. It is because of this that he who seeks these rewards for the sake of human glory and not for their intrinsic goodness is rebuked by the words of Scripture, "You ask, and do not receive, because you ask wrongly." (Maximos the Confessor)

Maximos and James seem intent on explaining the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus is quoted as saying,

"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." (Luke 11, 9-10)

When we do not win the lottery, when we lose our job, when the cancer wins, or when our child is killed in war, how do we explain the failure of prayer? Have we, somehow, asked wrongly?

I wonder if the problem is not in how we ask, but in our expectations of what we will receive. In the next two verses, Jesus continues,

"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

In response we will receive the Holy Spirit. Do we recognize how this gift is responsive to our prayers?