He Hears You

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

I can know that I can have eternal life and I can know that God hears me. First of all, eternal life is not simply immortality. Immortality without God is hell. Eternal life is about completeness, wholeness, joy unspeakable, life in God's presence. Part of that we begin to experience now is the beginnings of eternal life. Since we are still in our corruptible bodies we await the time we will be in the Lord's presence without hinderance, knowing him as we are known by him. Sometimes we forget or lose site of the truth that we have access to eternal life, in part, now. John wrote that we might know that.

Secondly, I think it is truly amazing that God hears me. The kicker is of course if we ask anything according to his will. When my wife and I first started seeing each other seriously I had to, of course, consider her two sons. They are both men now and I am very proud of them and how they handle themselves. At one time is was a bit rough between one of the boys and I. I remember praying, "Lord, what good does this do? How are you glorified in this? Is this your will?" I firmly believed it was God's will that we had at least a civil relationship, but, I prayed for a godly encouraging relationship of trust. The Lord heard those prayers and I remember my son saying, "Man, I really wanted to hate you, but you were so nice." God is so gracious and faithful. 

Eternal life and answered prayer meet in faith as we seek to love one another and live holy, righteous lives in Jesus' Name.