In his recent and important apostolic exhortation on the call to holiness, Gaudete et Exultate,Pope Francis stresses the importance of spiritual combat, vigilance, and discernment (http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20180319_gaudete-et-exsultate.html). The Letter of Saint James offers ample material that can help us discern more carefully that which is from God in our lives and that which is not.
Even before Christianity Greek philosophers sought to discern between, on the one hand, a greater rationality, a Logos, standing behind the beauty and order of the world, and, on the other hand, the baser passions that inject irrationality and disorder into our lives, drawing us away from the true beauty and good of the Logos.James 4 continues that tradition in a Christian way with the question, “where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members?” James warns us that we can become slaves to our passions to the point that we let them even determine our relationship to God. When that happens, he says, “you ask [in ‘prayer’] but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
How, then, ought we to pray? We ought to pray in Jesus’ name, which means asking him no longer for things that are in accord with our baser passions (which would debase his name) but rather asking for those things that he would wish us to ask for (on this, seehttp://www.magisspirituality.org/ignatian_reflection/16-05-07/). If a friend were to leave me some money to help someone in need in his name, then I would betray him if I were to use that money—and his name!—to hurt the very person that he wishes for me to help. Let us then ask God for the grace to pray worthily in Jesus’ name rather than to let our “prayer” be led by our baser passions.