June 07, 2024
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)
IF YOU ASK FOR ANYTHING
It 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.
These prayers are not selfish or sinful. Prayers prayed in the Name of Christ are prayers aligned with His will and, ultimately, for His glory. They are prayers initiated by God himself through the humble, listening believer, and God delights in answering them.
ASK AND YOU WILL RECEIVE
But the promise is that these prayers 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. But the way He has designed to accomplish that in this age is through prayer.
FULL JOY
When a believer aligns himself with God, takes God at His word, and prays these kinds of prayers, God answers according to His promise. The result for the believer is a life of full joy—not a little happiness, but full joy.
Perhaps we have so many joyless Christians because we have so many prayerless Christians. God delights in answering the bigger prayers of His children. He's wanting to initiate more in us, if we'll listen, ask, and believe. Think of all we will miss and the world will lose by a life of limited praying when the limitless promise of God is right before us!
Father, give me greater faith. Help me to wait in Your presence and hear what You are initiating, the things You want me to request. Then give me the courage to pray, and persevere in believing prayer. Accomplish great things, Lord, through our prayers that show the world how mighty You are. Don’t let me minimize the impact that is possible by my lack of prayer or by small, unbelieving prayers!
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