“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in You, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). Did Christ give a blank check that can be cashed with the signature of our desires?
Desiring to take Christ at His word, Mary and Jim plea for the life of Timmy, their six-year-old son. He had been playing in the backyard and in a moment of spontaneous delight rushed into the street to chase his run-away ball. The ongoing car swerved to miss him, but it was too late. The driver and his anxious parents are awaiting the outcome of the emergency surgery which is a desperate attempt to save his life. Mary keeps pondering the thought, “If only I had gone outside with him today.” She then cries out to her husband, “Oh Jim, what can we do?” Sam who had hit Timmy with his car feels the guilt and anguish as he identifies with the parent’s emotion having a six-year-old boy of his own. The three surrounded by concerned friends and relatives see a doctor giving instructions to a nurse. The nurse soberly enters the waiting room and delivers the news—Timmy is dead.
Had God let them down in the moment of great trial? Do we conclude that there is something wrong with God’s ability to deliver or that His word does not present absolute truth? Going in another direction do we conclude that the boy’s life could have been saved if Mary and Jim had prayed with sufficient faith? Jesus did also say, “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive” (Matthew 21:22). This line of reasoning is that the parents asked but did not believe that He would answer. Their lack of faith nullified the promise.
The most basic role of interpreting a statement correctly is to look at the context. The promise of John 15:7 is conditioned upon an abiding relationship with the Lord. We are to abide in the Lord and His words are to abide in us. To abide means “to live, remain, and be at home.” It is related to the commands to “store up or treasure” His words in our lives (Proverbs 7:1), let them “richly dwell” in us (Colossians 3:16), and to be “filled” or controlled by the knowledge of His will (Colossians 1:9). This is not to say that God’s word directly speaks to every issue that we pray about. There is nothing wrong with Mary and Jim pouring out their desire for the life of their precious son. However, it is to say that God loves us too much to place upon us the ultimate burden of trying to figure out what is best for us. What if Timmy’s death led to the driver’s salvation or rescued Jim from a workaholic lifestyle that saved his marriage?
Another basic role of hermeneutics is the principle of the analogy of Scripture. This principle states that no Scripture can be interpreted in such a way so as to render it in conflict with what is clearly taught elsewhere in Scripture. James 4:3 records one reason that prayer is not answered. The believers are rebuked for asking with “wrong motives.” This should not be understood to mean that just because you desire something very deeply you have wrong motives. The problem is when you desire something more than you desire God. In this case, you are ceasing to be God’s servant and insisting that He be your servant. The solution is found four verses later in James 4:7 in the three words submit to God.
A submissive trust is the essence of abiding. This posture in prayer is taught in the model prayer that Jesus gave to His disciples when they asked Him to teach them to pray. He taught them to pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). All true prayer presupposes a submission to His will. Jesus not only taught this but also clearly illustrated it in His life as He approached the climactic moment of His earthly life. He freely poured out His desire to escape the awful agony of the cross if it were possible, but concluded with the words, “yet not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). Such submission is the spirit of true prayer.
The apostle Paul earnestly desired the removal of his thorn in the flesh. His acceptance of God’s answer that came in a different package than his request demonstrates his abiding relationship with the Lord (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). In the process, he also got what he really desired. While he desired to have the thorn in the flesh removed, his greater desire was to experience God’s grace and power in a greater way that would lead to more fruitful service. This was more important to him than his own life (Philippians 3:10). He did not get the request of his lips but did get the request of his heart!
“Ask whatever you wish” can not only be abused by a lack of submission. Perhaps the greatest abuse is a spirit of unbelief that fails to take the words seriously. God is a kind Father who does desire to give good gifts to His children. We should not think of ourselves as more generous than God (Matthew 7:9-11). It is on the basis of His goodness that Jesus exhorts His followers to persistently pray.
God has chosen to work through prayer. When He desires to do something, He places a prayer burden on someone’s heart. The believer responds to this prayer burden and this sets the work of God in motion. True prayer begins with God! Look at how God encourages His people to keep on reminding Him of His promises in prayer and keep on calling on Him until He fulfills them in Isaiah 62:62-67!
Dorothy Clapp had a prayer burden for a public high school down the street from where she lived. Day after day, she faithfully poured out her heart in prayer on behalf of these students. She prayed that God would not only save young people from the school but also send them out to the ends of the earth. After praying for twelve years, she began to pray for a particular troubled male student. After three more years of praying, God saved George Verwer. George led two hundred of his classmates to Christ. As some of these students entered college together, they met for prayer and shared their faith with others. Three of them went to Mexico in 1957 to do ministry during the summer. By 1960 they were taking Christian youth to Spain. In 1964 they took their first group to India. Now thousands of young people from many nations go out each year to reach the world for Christ. George Verwer became the founder of Operation Mobilization, a mission organization that trains hundred of youth each summer and employs short-term and long-term missionaries around the world. It all began with one faithful older lady who responded to her prayer burden and prayed for fifteen years for a public high school in New Jersey.
Jesus clearly understood, practiced, and taught this principle of genuine submission and faith. One day Jesus observed a mass of people and felt deep compassion for their hearts and pains. He obviously deeply desired something to be done. He could have said anything to His disciples and chose to encourage them to pray that the Lord would thrust out workers to provide compassionate help for these people (Matthew 9:35-38). He did not ask them to pray simply because it would make them feel religious. He asked them to pray because He knew how heaven worked! For this very same reason, Paul instructed Timothy that the first priority of the gathered church is to pray (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
One pastor scheduled his counseling appointments thirty minutes before he could actually see them. When they arrived, he would instruct them to go into the sanctuary and first talk to God about their problem. He found that some of the people who spent that thirty minute time in prayer no longer needed his counsel after talking to the Wonderful Counselor (Isaiah 9:6).
“Ask whatever you wish” is Jesus’ invitation. While our prayer is to be submissive to His will, His word has clearly told us many aspects of His will. Do we not all desire genuine peace? The believer can experience this desire as he casts his cares upon the Lord through prayer (Philippians 4:6-7). Do we not all crave real joy that comes from living in harmony with God? Jesus also associated joy with the experience of prayer in John 16:24. Do not we all desire to be encouraged in our spirits? Jesus taught that persistent prayer is the means of not “losing heart” (Luke 18:1). Mary and Jim hope to see their son Timmy again one day in heaven. It is only the peace that passes all understanding, the joy that can be found in living in harmony with God, and the encouragement that daily comes from God that keeps them going as they complete their earthly pilgrimage. “If you abide in Me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7).