Many of us have wondered, “Does God really hear my prayers? Does He listen when I pour out my complaints to Him? Does He care about only the big things in my life, or can I talk to Him about small things as well?” We have been learning together about how much God loves us. He cares, and He is so willing to be in fellowship with us, that He desires to be involved in our lives. He has made sacrifice and provision for our access to Him through Jesus Christ His Son, and now He desires that we live with His consciousness and presence in our lives every day. John the apostle takes this matter of intimacy and prayer as we begin our study today in the book of First John in chapter five and verse fourteen. He wrote:
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us:
John uses the word “confidence”. It means we can trust this as being true, we can hold fast to it, rely upon it and cling to the words he is about to write. John says, “this is the confidence we have in him”, in God, in our Heavenly Father, the Creator, Almighty, and All-knowing God. Our faith is only as good as the object in which we place it. Our confidence is not in some inept entity or some uncaring being, but our confidence is in our loving and compassionate God.
And just what is this confidence directed toward? This is the fact, “if we ask any thing according to His will, he hears us.” God hears us. God knows what we need. God has a plan for our lives, and He sees clearly things that we are not even aware of at the time we pray. We are encouraged to pray. Praying does not have to be in some sort of holy tone or loudness of voice, but rather it is simply having a conversation with our Creator God. We talk with Him. We share with Him. We ask Him to direct our lives, and we make our pleas in His presence.
There is one notable condition in this scripture to which we should pay attention in our prayer - “according to his will”. Prayer should never be to get our will done, but it should be to get God's will done. It should be according to “his will”, not ours if we desire for God to hear us. Sometimes we act like God is some sort of servant who should be ready to follow our every instruction, and give us everything we desire. But, it does not work that way. Our prayers are meant to align ourselves with what God has in mind for our lives. Sometimes we pray for things we do not need, and it is only later that we discover that we are so glad we God did not give us what we asked.. Some of us know what it means to “thank God for unanswered prayers.”
There is much more on the topic of prayer that we shall share together in the next few days, so suffice it for today for us to know that God is interested in our prayers. He hears them, and when we align our wills with His, there are promises throughout the scriptures that confirm that we shall have that which we ask.
Next time we will look at more that John has to say about prayer, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until tomorrow...there is more...
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