Confident in prayer
This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him. 1 John 5:14-15 CSB
God wants to provide us an assurance that we are saved because we have placed our faith in Christ as our Lord and Savior. This is why John says from our previous passage, “I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). In line with that, John shows that believers can have confidence as well in approaching God’s thrown of grace because of their relationship with Christ. “This is the confidence we have before Him: if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” John mentioned this previously in chapter 3 (see 1 John 3:21-22). God will grant what we ask IF (big conditional statement) we ask according to His will. The natural question then is, “How do I know the will of God?” God can reveal His will through His Word as a believer spends daily time walking through it. The Holy Spirit can speak to a believer to guide them in what they need to do. The key factor here for the believer is maturity through a deep relationship with Jesus. We can see this in John 15:7, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.” Through prayer, the believer’s view changes from trying to shift God to see through their point of view to the believer seeing what God wants to do. Through the confidence of salvation and daily walking with the Lord, the believer’s prayer life changes from asking not what they want, but more of what God wants. In that regard, the Lord will then answer accordingly. “And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14). Therefore, for believers, may you grow in that relationship with Christ, shifting away focus away from yourself and focusing solely on Jesus, becoming more and more like Him daily, abiding in Him, so that you see what He wants you to accomplish through prayer. “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
Blessings,
Isaac De Guzman
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