“RECOGNIZE”

15 “And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”

1 John 5:15

My family and I saw a movie where a man prays for his dying dad. He quotes James 5:16 and requests his younger brother to pray because he sees him as “righteous.” He argues that God has no choice but to listen to his brother’s prayer because his brother is a good person. However, his father dies. Then, this man begins to have bitter resentment against God for not saving his dad from death.

Perhaps millions of people share the same conviction: that God is bound to do what they say as long as they have faith. But both personal experience and the Bible say otherwise.

Yesterday, we learned that having the right mindset about prayer sets our expectations properly.

In today’s verse, John guarantees believers’ confidence in coming to God and requesting in His name. In a sense, he is saying that since we know that God listens to prayers asked according to His will, we can also know that we already possess those requests at the moment we have asked for them.

However, God’s response is not always evident in the way we want. Sometimes, we immediately recognize an answered prayer, but some prayers take years or even a lifetime to see their results.

It seems to me that John says that if we pray for something that is in full conformity to God’s will, we know that we already have them because they are God’s own. And if things belong to God, we know that nothing can stop them from coming to pass because God’s will always prevails.

Our faith should grow to a point where we are willing to submit ourselves to God’s will. This kind of faith recognizes God’s heart and His purposes. It will not cause us to have hard feelings about God when we don’t get what we pray for. More importantly, it will save us a lot of unwarranted grudges against God and unnecessary stress on us.

Pursue the Savior today!