May 27, 2017
It is a promise so expansive that it is hard to believe. But it is found right before us in the red letters of the inspired, inerrant Scripture.
""Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full."" (John 16:23-24)
IN MY NAME
Fully answered prayer seems too good to be true, but Jesus puts only one limitation on our asking: ""In my Name."" This governor is enough, though, to properly align our prayers.
It is not that these prayers are not personal, but they are not selfish or sinful. Prayers prayed in the Name of Christ are those aligned with His will and for His glory. They are prayers initiated by God himself, through the humble, listening believer. And God delights to answer these requests.
ASK AND YOU WILL RECEIVE
The promise is that they are always answered. Our problem is not that God won't answer, but that we won't believe enough to ask.
We measure God by our own standards, in humanistic terms. ""He couldn't possibly do that,"" we reason. Because WE can't do that we assume HE can't do that. Sadly, we shrink God to our level.
And this is precisely what God longs to avoid. He wants to show us that He is God and there is no other. And the way He has designed in this age to accomplish that is through God-sized prayers.
FULL JOY
When some believer aligns Himself with God, takes God at His word, and prays these kinds of prayers, God answers according to His promise. And the result for the believer is a life of full joy. Not a little happiness, but full joy.
Perhaps the reason we have so many joyless Christians is that we have so many prayerless Christians. God delights to delight His children, just as you do yours. Give Him that joy by believing Him for big requests.
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