⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God,^(A) who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.^(B)

² You desire but do not have, so you kill.^(A) You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive,^(B) because you ask with wrong motives,^(C) that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

⁹ “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you;^(A) seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

¹¹ “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for^[a] a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³ 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!”