If you read my earlier blog of "Jesus - Do you Pinky Promise?" you'll recall how I found out that you can pray on the promises that God made in the Bible with faith that he'll keep those promises. After all, God is perfect and holy and cannot lie. Well one of my favorite promises, which is actually given to us by Jesus through multiple scriptures is summed up in Matthew 21:22.
"If you believe, you shall recieve whatever you ask for in prayer."
Well as I stated before, most Christians get uncomfortable with this verse because they would say how you have to make sure that what you are praying for is God's will. Well in case you were wondering, this is the verse that would be the basis for that argument. 1 John 5:14-15
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask-- we know that we have what we asked of him." (bolding on my part)
So that's pretty clear Chris. The condition of this promise is what you are asking for has to be in congruence with what God's will for you is. As in, lets say you are praying that you get a certain job, well if its not "God's Will" that you get that job he won't give you what you prayed for. Is that what this verse is saying? .... This verse always struck me as odd because it didn't line up with the other times Jesus promised that we get whatever we pray for as long as we believe. Did Jesus forget to explain that it must be God's will in those many circumstances? OOPS! Sorry guys, Jesus FORGOT! /sarcasm off. Ok of course not. So something isn't adding up here...
And this is where my revelation comes in. I was reading in John and I came across this verse which explains everything. John 6:40
"For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life" (bolding on my part)
What this is, is Jesus telling us exactly what God's will is. Its not a guessing game for us. We need to let the Bible define itself. In fact, I think its interesting that it's even the same author (John) with both books, so we know he'd use the same wording. So the way I'd sum up the verse is this: God's will is for us to believe in Jesus...so lets substitute that instead of the words, "his will" in the first verse to get the real meaning:
**This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to (Belief in Jesus), he hears us. And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask-- we know that we have what we asked of him.**
This makes a lot more sense now and it lines up perfectly with what Jesus said in Matthew 21:22. Belief in jesus and faith in God's promises are the keys here.
Disclaimer: I think its great to pray for God's Will for guidance and direction. But when we are praying for something specific, there is no need to throw in a "...if its your will" in there. That's not how Jesus told us to ask.
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