The Power of Prayer

John 15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. (NRSV)

One of the great dilemmas that we face in prayer is this: What can you ask God for? Anything – or are there exclusions? Come on … when you pray, what can you ask God for?

Many of the things that Jesus said back in His day shocked and sometimes offended people. In the end, that’s what led to His crucifixion.

And one of the extraordinary and indeed, to the religious leaders, offensive things that He did say, was this:

John 15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. (NRSV)

That … seriously … opens a Pandora’s box! Ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you?

Anything?! How can He possibly make a promise like that? Quite simply because He begins the promise with a qualifier: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you.

That word “abide” is a strong word. It means to remain, to continue, to dwell, to endure, to stand firm, never to depart. So when we read this outrageous promise, qualified as it is by that two-way abiding – us in Christ and His Word in us – we can see quite clearly how such a promise can be made.

Because when Jesus becomes the Lord of your life (and that’s precisely the inference of this bilateral, unbreakable abiding), then the desires of your heart change completely. You become very discerning in what you ask for because when, with your lips and in your heart, you’re able to declare that Christ is my Lord … you have bowed your will completely to His.

Do you abide in Him? Does His Word truly abide in you? Then ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.