When Christ gives us the gift — the privilege — of praying to our Father in his name, he tells us to ask for anything.
ANYTHING!!!
He wants us to pray big. And in order to pray big, we’ve got to think big. We have to dream big. Most of us, though, think small. We pray small. You hear it when we pray together on Sunday mornings, in our homes on Sunday nights, in our Bible classes, and in our own family settings. Most of us pray little.
Help me to have a good day.
Keep us safe on this trip.
Help us to get a good night’s rest.
Forgive us our sins.
Help the elders make good decisions.
Bless our Give Away Day.
These prayers just sound so anemic, so puny, when compared to the language Jesus uses when he talks about asking God for help. Whatever you ask! Anything, he says. Everything in heaven and earth belongs to him. Ask for it. Anything!
“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 have asked for.” ~1 John 5:14-15
This willingness for God to be so over-the-top generous and gracious as to give us anything we ask challenges our logic and tests our faith. But Jesus says it three times around the table at the end of John. And the apostle repeats it several times in his letters. Whatever you ask. Anything you ask.
The truth is that God has much more to give than we’re normally willing to ask.
What is your wildest possible dream for your family? Pray for it!
What’s the most outrageous huge thing you could possibly imagine for your congregation? Ask God for it!
What’s the biggest mind-blowing, earth-altering thing you could ever hope for your neighborhood or your community or the whole world?
Are you asking for it?
Peace,
Allan
It seems like there are too many Christians who are resentful about the topic of prayer for this very reason. We’re told in church all of our lives that we can ask for anything and yet far too often our requests are not granted. Further confounding things is the phrase from the passage you quoted (“anything according to his will”) that seems to suggest that if you request something and it’s granted, that’s because God was going to do that anyway, and thus takes away the reason for praying in the first place. I know of many who are struggling with a prayer life that seems dead because none of their prayers seem to be answered even though they are repeatedly told to ask for anything and it will be granted.
Stay tuned. We’re building something here. Thanks for the segue, brother.