Wow, this chapter is short but it's a bomb. I almost hesitate to even try to learn anything from just reading it as I'm sure there is a lot of contextual information thats critical in understanding it. However, I read it, and I have thoughts, so here goes. "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." What's he condemning here , having passions, or asking for God to help you in them. I'm a man of many hobbies and have felt like they are a type of worship. Just this week I've had two spiritually uplifting experiences one after an intense game of racquetball and another on a relaxing day on a high mountain lake. Both times I felt like, this is what life's about, this is why God created us, this is what it's like to be living in grace and experiencing God's blessing and I'm thankful. Now, after reading this, I just sort of feel guilty and shallow. On that note: "Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you." Yeek. That's definitely a couple verses I'd steer a potential believer away from. I have no idea what it really means, I hope, an presume it doesn't mean what the NIV has translated it as, which to me basically reads as intentional depression and God will reward you for said depression at some later time with "exalting", which I had to look up in the dictionary and it means high in rank. So at face value, this suggests we should stop being happy, be mournful, and we'll be higher ranked by God. This doesn't seem consistent with my limited knowledge of the gospel, aka "good news". And then vs. 13-17 are the real killers. Basically, again at face value, its hard to swallow. I think what I'm taking it as for me, is tone down a bit on the financial planning and put a little more trust in God. I know as well as anyone that the best laid plans can easily fail. Yet its still a hard concept to not plan at all. We all are trying to make a living, support our family. We all plan out our careers, spend a lot of time sometimes considering whether or not to move somewhere for a new job that will better support the family etc etc. It seems like he says that's wrong, instead, and maybe this is just an odd translation, say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” Does that not sound a little wishy washy? Can't the Lord will us to go into such and such a town and do some trading for a while? Maybe its a matter of credit. We should not say, I excelled at my job and so I got a great promotion. But should simply be giving thanks, and not boasting about your effort. Still, this is a hard concept too, we want to think our actions can have positive consequences.

Really helpful feedback guys thanks.