“Praying with Confidence”
“Praying with Confidence”
We have been talking about strength and courage throughout this month. I hope and pray as you rest in God’s presence, trust in His promises and walk in His power that you are developing a greater confidence in His love. Through this confidence you will become courageous.
In today’s scripture the Apostle John teaches us how to pray with confidence. Unfortunately many people have taken this scripture out of context and made it something it is not. Let’s take a look and ask God to give us wisdom, understanding and revelation!
1 John 5:13-15
I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. 14 And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. 15 And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.
I added verse thirteen to our reading today. This verse is a key to understanding verses fourteen and fifteen. If we are going to pray with confidence we must first be certain that we are a child of God. Therefore we must believe in the Name of Jesus and know that we have eternal life! Our confidence must be connected to this truth!
As God’s child we can be confident that He loves us and desires to listen to us. The last couple of days in our scripture reading and devotions we have seen God inviting us into His presence. Therefore we know that God wants to spend time with His children. As a good Father He wants to listen and respond to His children. So, the Apostle Paul is teaching us; we can ask for anything that pleases God and He will do it! Please read that again, “if we ask anything that pleases Him!” This does not support the idea “name it and claim it.” We must ask according to our Father’s will. This reminds me of the words of King David written in the Psalm. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.
God wants to bless His children but He also knows what is best for each one of us. Therefore He will give according to His will. When we are walking in God’s Spirit we are connected and our desires will be God’s desires. Our prayers will be connected to His will and we can be confident that not only does He hear us, He will do it. If we are praying according to our own personal desires than God has no obligation to answer these prayers. Think about when Jesus was praying in the garden. He asked His Father, if it is possible take this cup of suffering away from Me, if there is another way please make it happen. But then Jesus prayed, not My will but Your will be done. Jesus knew that His purpose and destiny was through the cross. But in His flesh He prayed for deliverance but then in God’s Spirit He concluded; God’s will to be done! I share this to help us all understand, it is okay to cry out to God for a situation to change but we must leave trusting in God’s love and sovereignty. We all must be willing to say, not my will but your will be done!
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