1 John 5:14-15
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we have asked 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 5:14-15
Prayer is one of those things I am trying to understand. It certainly demonstrates our dependence upon God and our helplessness without Him. Prayer is a humbling discipline in the life of a believer. To genuinely pray, one has to come to an end of himself and recognize their place before God, this however, is no easy task. We generally function as independent people who are sufficient in and of ourselves. If we want something done, we buckle down and get it done! Hard work and outside the box thinking seem to rule our lives. "We can do anything, if we put our minds to it", is what we often think, but this is not true when it comes to Kingdom living. In a Kingdom there is a King and servants. The goal of the servant is to carry out the desires of the King. The servants are not supposed to do whatever they want independent of the King. The servants may even have good intentions, but if its not the will of the King then it accomplishes nothing on the King's agenda. This is why prayer is so important. It is essential to kingdom life! You cannot act as an independent servant and expect to carry out the King's will. John tells us that the confidence we have before God is that if we ask anything according to God's will, then He hears us, and if He hears...He will answer! How do we know the will of God? Certainly God has a stated will written in His Word, but there is an aspect of His will that we don't understand. God is at work, and at times we have no idea where that is. It is the task of a servant to carry out that will, and so we go before God and ask with confidence. If it is God's will, then He will answer. If it is not God's will then He won't. So often I think that we focus on the idea that God will give us anything we ask no matter what it is, but the condition is that it must be according to God's will. The point is that we have asked and are discovering the King's will. God did not answer Jesus' request to "take this cup from me" the night before the crucifixion, but Jesus desire was to carry out His Father's will. Three times He prayed, and after the third, He knew what needed to be done...consequently, the cup was not taken from Him. So pray! Humble yourself and seek out the will of the King through prayer! Prayer is about discovering one thing...the will of our King!
God, I come to You this morning knowing that apart from You, I am a useless servant in Your service. Help me to be dependent upon You in all things! Help me to not act independently of You even with the best of intentions. Help me to be a man of prayer!
Prayer is one of those things I am trying to understand. It certainly demonstrates our dependence upon God and our helplessness without Him. Prayer is a humbling discipline in the life of a believer. To genuinely pray, one has to come to an end of himself and recognize their place before God, this however, is no easy task. We generally function as independent people who are sufficient in and of ourselves. If we want something done, we buckle down and get it done! Hard work and outside the box thinking seem to rule our lives. "We can do anything, if we put our minds to it", is what we often think, but this is not true when it comes to Kingdom living. In a Kingdom there is a King and servants. The goal of the servant is to carry out the desires of the King. The servants are not supposed to do whatever they want independent of the King. The servants may even have good intentions, but if its not the will of the King then it accomplishes nothing on the King's agenda. This is why prayer is so important. It is essential to kingdom life! You cannot act as an independent servant and expect to carry out the King's will. John tells us that the confidence we have before God is that if we ask anything according to God's will, then He hears us, and if He hears...He will answer! How do we know the will of God? Certainly God has a stated will written in His Word, but there is an aspect of His will that we don't understand. God is at work, and at times we have no idea where that is. It is the task of a servant to carry out that will, and so we go before God and ask with confidence. If it is God's will, then He will answer. If it is not God's will then He won't. So often I think that we focus on the idea that God will give us anything we ask no matter what it is, but the condition is that it must be according to God's will. The point is that we have asked and are discovering the King's will. God did not answer Jesus' request to "take this cup from me" the night before the crucifixion, but Jesus desire was to carry out His Father's will. Three times He prayed, and after the third, He knew what needed to be done...consequently, the cup was not taken from Him. So pray! Humble yourself and seek out the will of the King through prayer! Prayer is about discovering one thing...the will of our King!
God, I come to You this morning knowing that apart from You, I am a useless servant in Your service. Help me to be dependent upon You in all things! Help me to not act independently of You even with the best of intentions. Help me to be a man of prayer!
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