Ask Anything...

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 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

1 John 5:13 -15  (NIV)

What's the point? The point is that we know we have eternal life. The point isn't that we know the secret faith formula to get whatever we want. 

To know we have eternal life is to know we are in Christ, receiving his love and loving others with his love puts us securely in his will. If we seek his will and pray accordingly, his word says he will give us what we ask. Since Christ loves us enough to die for us, he surely listens to our prayers. 

OK, so let's get real here. I have prayed and not gotten what I have asked for. It is easy to say, "Well, that wasn't God's will then." Maybe. I have prayed for people's salvation and they seem to reject God and I know it is God's desire that all men be saved (I Timothy 2:4). I think we must consider that God's will is ultimately that we are made new in the image of Jesus Christ and sometimes waiting in him to answer prayer shapes our faith in ways we cannot perceive or imagine. He may hear us but may be doing something we just don't understand or see. 

Faith is believing that God loves me and is working out everything for my good according to his will and in his faithful timing. 

Father, help us to pray and wait upon you to work you will in our lives. Praise be to you in us today!