One of the Scriptures that has troubled me for years is the passage where Jesus said, “If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” We all have prayed asking God to do many things. We have tried to have faith. We have tried to believe. However, there are probably more times than not for what we asked was not given from God as what we wanted. So, how do we balance the invitation from Jesus to ask and we will receive against the reality of our own lives that we have not received?
There is an important element in asking that we easily overlook. It is located in John 15. In fact, the entire chapter gives us the details to this question. It is not merely a matter of asking and God is obligated to give us what we want no matter how important or serious our request happens to be. There is a prerequisite to our ability to ask and receive. Jesus drew a comparison between himself and the Heavenly Father. There is a relationship between them that can be summarized in the word “abide.” In a similar way, if we abide in Jesus, he is more likely to answer our requests.
But what does it mean to abide in Jesus? Again, Jesus drew the comparison between a vine and the branches. The branches are attached to the vine or abide with the vine so that much fruit can be produced. Also, Jesus advised us to have his words abide in us. Thereunto the Heavenly Father is glorified by us bringing forth more fruit. The idea is not for us to have our way in prayer. The idea is for us to have a goal to glorify God.
As we abide in God, our requests are not our own. Our requests are subservient to God’s will. That means if the will that we have is submissive to God’s will or parallels his will, certainly what we ask will be accomplished because all we’re doing is asking what God wants. A simple example is for a child to go to his mother and say he’s hungry. He knows that mother is cooking his supper. He is then saying that his will conforms to his mother’s will since she has already prepared the meal.
There are several components to abiding in Jesus. The first is that we along with God have an expectation to bring forth fruit. That fruit is not necessarily what we always ask for in prayer. It can also be what the Holy Spirit demonstrates through our lives. Jesus said we are clean through the word he spoke which means we have dealt with sin at the time that we make our request. In addition, we must have a full awareness of abiding in Jesus and he in us. We can do nothing otherwise. Another requisite to abiding in Christ is that his word must abide in us. Certainly, we should not expect to have a prayer answered if it is contrary to what Scripture says.
An element of abiding in Jesus is that we continue in his love. We are the receptacle of his love and the vehicle by which his love is channeled to the rest of the world. Furthermore, to abide in Christ is to maintain awareness that we are not glibly serving God but that he chose us and ordained us to bring forth fruit. If we are going to bring forth fruit, we must ask in the name of Jesus so that we might receive it. Lastly, the witness we bear to the world is the result of the Holy Spirit in us that proceeded from the Heavenly Father. This was all planned in God’s foreknowledge.
Christian Writer 