John uses the word, confidence, here again as he did in 1 John 2:28. Remember the word confidence means "boldness" and in this case, "assurance".
John reiterates that we have that boldness now in Christ to come to God and pray. What a glorious gift given by our most Holy God and Father: the gift of talking with Him in such a personal way as His Son did....
Luke 11:1
How wonderful it must have been to see Jesus talking to God on such a personal level. Remember, there were no prophets of the Lord any longer. No one was there to tell the people what God was saying or to tell God what the people wanted. Silence.
Now here comes Jesus who gives them the perfect model of how to pray to God:
Luke 11:2-4
Matt 6:5-8
Notice how Jesus began: adoration and thankfulness. Only then does He continue on in that assurance and confidence that He is being heard.
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"..that if we ask anything according to His will..."
Of course, John wants us to remember that God is not come cosmic jeanie in a bottle just waiting for us to bring forth our commands to Him. Not the case at all.....we serve a Holy God who cannot even look or speak to us because of our sins.
Is 6:1-8
The seraphim could not even touch the ground that God was on nor could they look into His face. Isaiah was only heard by God after his sins were purged. Then God used him. So, how is it that our prayers are heard if we are also full of sin?
Heb 7:23-
Rom 8:34
It is only because of Christ Jesus perfection that our prayers are heard at all.
But what does it mean to pray in "His will"?
John 14:13-14
John 15:16
John 16:23-24
When we pray in the name of Jesus, we are praying in His very authority. We are praying in His likeness. So when we pray for a million dollars, fame, and material wealth....are we praying in His will since Jesus did not own anything except the clothes on His back and the sandals on His feet?
No.
To pray in His will is to pray in His like manner: in all humility.
Phil 4:6-7
Paul teaches us to pray instead of worry. He tells us not to be anxious about anything but to pray about everything. Think of all the wasted time we have spent on worrying!
I have shared here before about how I teach my son to pray about everything...from finding lost articles, to help with tests at school. I want my son to see that God is a very personal God. That is what Paul had learned through his many trials and tribulations: God cares.
2 Cor 12:7-9
But God sometimes answers, "No" and we must accept that.
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"He hears us..."
What precious and hopeful words are these! John saw it with his own eyes how God heard the prayers of His Son.
John 11:41-42
The confidence that Christ had in the fact that His prayer was heard by God is the same confidence that we now have because of Christ's perfect obedience. God hears us when we pray because we have Jesus.
So, if we do not have Jesus.....does that mean our prayers cannot be heard?
Ro 3:11
Heb 11:6
Is 64:6-7
Is 1:4-6
Is 1:10-11
Nahum 1:2-3
We see in these verses that no one actively seeks after God. Sin must be dealt with before God will even hear us.
And it is not we who turn to God...but the Holy Spirit brings us to Him.
Heb 13:20-21
Ro 8:26-27
John 16:7-15
It is of the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus that we are called to pray in His will...it is not of our own will.
James 4:1-3
Is 59:1-2
Because of our sin....God does not hear our prayers. So, the prayers of unbelievers (those whom God does not know) are not heard by Him.
Matt 7:21-23
2 Tim 2:19
Prov 28:9
The prayers of the unbeliever are an abomination to God. Our prayers before we were saved were that sinful to God! Only because of the work of Christ are we heard at all. He knows those who belong to Him.
John 14:23
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"..whatever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him."
John concludes the passage with the hope of Christ: now that we are His, whatever we ask is heard by God through Jesus. Now we can take all our cares, all our worries, all our hopes and dreams to Him and know that we are heard!
All because of what Jesus did.
Heb 10:19-25
"Let us draw near," Paul tells us. "With a true heart in full assurance of faith."
Praise God today for that full assurance. And if you ever struggle with your prayer life, always turn to the Psalms. They were written by great men of faith who knew how to pray to God personally because of the Holy Spirit.
Ps 86:11-13
Take time today to seek the Lord. Ask Him to teach you to pray to Him as Jesus did: humbly but with confidence. Take time to thank Him for the gift of prayer. Make prayer time an essential part of your day. Ask the Lord to enter into your day and make it His.
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Life Application
I will never forget one Thursday night in Feb, 2003. I was asked to teach a Bible lesson at the prison on a new night with a new group of inmates I had never met. It was a strange time, but I felt the Lord leading me to teach about the importance of prayer. The prison ministry I was involved in wanted us to "prepare the inmates for their release into the real world". I thought, what better way to prepare them than to teach them about prayer?
So, as the 12 or 13 inmates entered into the small room, I began to talk about the importance of prayer. Some were turned away reading books and ignoring me. They were just using the class as a chance to get out of their boring cells. Some were listening to me with their Bibles open. And still others were engrossed in conversations with each other.
Still, I kept teaching about prayer and showing them the fantastic prayers of Daniel and Nehemiah I had just learned about in Sunday Bible study at our church. I could see after a few minutes how the Holy Spirit was waking these women to new and exciting things they had never heard before in the Bible. After a few minutes, I had everyone's attention! They couldn't wait to learn more about the Lord in His word.
When the lesson was over, we all gathered around holding hands in a large circle. I told them that if they attended my class, they would learn about the Bible and nothing else. They praised God. They seemed so hungry to learn scripture! They were excited to come to that Thursday class again with their Bibles!
After I prayed for them, we departed. Some hugged me and thanked me and together we praised the Lord for our time in His word. Then, I boarded the bus that took me to the parking lot and I left the prison.....and I never went back. I never saw any of those ladies again.
My heart breaks and aches for them, but the Lord removed me from the prison ministry for many reasons. One most important reason was to work on my marriage which was falling apart from sin.
As I look back on that Thursday night, I praise God that He used me to teach the ladies about prayer. I thank Him that for one night I was used by Him to teach others about their sin, prayer, and the Word of God. Even if I never am allowed to return to that ministry again....that is ok because I know those ladies, whoever they are and wherever they are.....heard the Truth that night.
They were taught about God's word.
I was told many months later that the next Thursday night, about 50 womem inmates showed up with their Bibles ready to be taught God's word again. The original ladies had told their friends about the study and they came ready to learn! But I was not there. Another teacher had come, but she was only there to teach them about being released into the real world and not about the Bible. How disappointed those inmates must have been.
My heart broke then as it breaks now. Ladies, in order to be used by God we must be purged of our sins like Isaiah was purged. That purging hurts. Especially when I look back and think about all those ladies who came with their Bibles ready to learn being disappointed again.
Sometimes I ask God, "Why?" and He always answers me with His word:
Is 1:13 God cannot endure iniquity in His workers.
That answer hurts, but it is Truth and the Truth sets us free!
Pray for them. Pray for me. Pray that the Lord will use me once again to teach His word to others in new and glorious ways!
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Until next time....
"Let us learn the blessedness of bending our will to God's discovering in the process how he witholds no good thing from his children. Jesus said, 'If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?' (Matt 7:11). What assurance that brings us! We not only know that we belong to God but that God wants to bless us with goodness all the days of our lives."
-Dr. Joel Beeke (The Epistles of John, 2006, p. 205)
Blessings,
Ruth
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