I started this blog to write about prayer. Now, admit it: prayer can be a boring topic. But, let's say you are trying to be more religious. You just went to Easter services, and praying more seems like a good idea. Prayer is spiritual, as in, "If I were really spiritual, I would be able to pray for an hour (or five minutes, anyway) (or at least 30 seconds without thinking about what I am going to have for breakfast)." I can already see that your problem is that you don't really even know what you want; or maybe you know what you want, but you suspect you shouldn't want it, or God wouldn't want to give it to you. What if you were really honest: "God, give me a motorcycle. I want a new Harley-Davidson." But, that doesn't sound very spiritual, so you stick to things that you are supposed to want: "God, grant us peace, and bless my aunt, who is sick, and keep me safe." Maybe your problem is that you are not desperate.
This picture is placed here in honor of my good friend, Charlie Bob Stryker, who has so many horses that he doesn't know what to do with them all, and has absolutely nothing to do with the post (except for the oblique reference to a Harley-Davidson motorcycle).
When Jesus encountered people, He often asked them what they wanted Him to do for them. Now these were diseased, blind, lame people, or parents of dying children. So it may seem obvious to us, when we read the stories, what they should have wanted, But, He still asked. And because they were desperate, and they had heard that Jesus could work miracles, they said things like, "Lord, that I might receive my sight." And then He would say something like, "According to your faith be it unto you." And guess what? They received the answer to their prayer every time. Now, you might object, saying, "Those weren't prayers; Jesus was standing right there." Ha! You can think about that one for a while! But, right now I want to talk a little about desperation, because I have something to share with you that has the power to change your life. But I can't give it to you without context, and the context has to be desperation. Here's a passage I want you to read:
". . . I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, 'I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,' and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked . . ." (Revelation 3:15-17)
This, in my opinion, is a perfect description of modern church people. This is you and me. What if you were to write down what it is you really want out of life. What would be on your list? Would it be a list of stuff? A new car? A bigger house? More money? "Dear God, we could all use more money!" What if, for just a minute you dug a little deeper? "God, I wish I didn't look like this." "I wish my husband loved me." "Why am I still addicted to the same stuff?" "I hate my job." "Why am I so depressed?" "Why am I never satisfied?" These are some of the things we would write down, if we weren't so distracted. We may be struggling, but we have lots to keep us occupied and to soften the blows. It's like we are blind, and Jesus is asking us what we want Him to do for us, and we say, "You know Jesus, I'm good. On second thought, maybe a diamond studded walking cane would be fun." Somebody is reading this, and you know exactly what I am talking about. You are already desperate. You are in a crisis, and you know it. To the rest of you, I would say that you don't have to be in the middle of a crisis, you just have to know that you are in need. I say "desperate," but I don't want you to think you can only pray prayers that get answered if you are in a crisis. "Hungry" might be a more appropriate word. A person can pray for all sorts of reasons, but disciplining yourself to pray longer is not going to achieve the desired outcome, unless your desired outcome is religious pride. Truth is available to the hungry, the ones who realize they are still missing something.
So, now, in that context, let's talk about praying and getting our prayers answered. The Bible is full of stories, commands, teachings, lists of names, prophetic utterances, and some things that are difficult for the average person to understand. But most importantly, I think, for you, it is full of promises from God. These promises, according to Hebrews 11:33, are obtained through faith. In other words, they become promises when we believe them. I John 5:14,15 contains one such promise:
"This is the confidence that we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked from Him."
So what is the promise? That He will hear us and give us what we ask, right? Do you believe this promise? It can't be that simple, can it? I'll bet you have identified a loophole. It says, "anything according to His will." How can we know what His will is? Unfortunately, people read this through their religious filters, which tell them that God's will is wrapped up in His sovereign plan, which is unknowable. So, we pray something, and we don't get an answer (so far as we know), then we tell ourselves that it must not have been His will. But what good is this promise, if that is the case? You can know His will by looking in the Bible. The word for His "will," here, means what God desires for you. For example, in Luke 5, a leper approached Jesus and said, "Lord, if you are willing (same Greek root word), you can make me clean." Jesus said, "I am willing" (same word, again), and He touched the leper and healed him. Does God want lepers to be healed? Well, Jesus does, and he told his disciples, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father." Does God want good things for His children, the way you want good things for yours, if you have children? Even more so. Do you want your children to suffer and struggle? No, of course you don't. Your heart aches for them, and you long to see them healthy and happy, if they would just let you help them. So why would you think God's heart is inferior to yours?
But, you read somewhere that God does not hear sinners. O.K., let's look at the passage, again. It starts out, "This is the confidence that we have." I John talks a lot about confidence. Here, it means boldness to speak openly to God. It is hard to be confident before God, when we are constantly reminded of all the things that we are ashamed of. In chapter 3 it says, "If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things." God knows everything about you and He doesn't condemn you. It is your own heart that is shaming you, because you see your sin. But, God doesn't see it! God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That is what happened when you believed in Him. So, now, when God looks at you, He sees Jesus. Every time you start to feel ashamed of something you have done, confess, "I am the righteousness of God in Christ." Stop looking at your sin, and start looking at Jesus, and sin's hold over you will be broken. Chapter 3 goes on to say that if our hearts do not condemn us, then we have confidence before God. So, here is the progression: if our hearts do not condemn us, then we have confidence in His presence. If we have confidence in His presence, we know that He hears us. If we know that He hears us, our request will be granted.
I know some of you are objecting to this, on the grounds that it can't be that easy for you to have a heart that is not condemned. In fact, the passage I referred to in chapter 3 says we have our requests because we keep His commandments. And even in chapter 1, verse 9, it says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us. You might say, "D.J., I was taught that God only answers the prayers of righteous people, and righteous people keep the commandments and confess their sins, regularly. And see, that's what it says in the book of I John that you are quoting from." Glad you brought it up! These are the same two concerns that I carried for years, and If you can get what I am about to tell you, it will change, not just your prayer life, but your entire life.
First, let's talk about keeping the commandments. Did you know that Jesus' commandments are not the same as the ten commandments. Jesus gave us two commandments, according to I John 3:23. They are (1) to believe in Jesus, and (2) to love one another. Believing in Jesus is what makes us righteous. God says we are righteous through believing in Jesus' finished work for us on the cross. If we say we believe in Jesus, but we don't believe what God said about us, that makes us unbelieving believers! Then why does He add the commandment to love one another? We have two different kinds of relationships on earth, so there are two ways that our hearts can either condemn us or not. One is our relationship with God. That is settled forever by Jesus' work on the cross. But the second is our relationship with other people. We receive love from God, so that we can give love to others. If we claim to love God, but we do not love our brother, our heart will still condemn us. The good news is that when we dwell on how much He loves us, loving others comes naturally. So, yes, God hears righteous people, but if you believe in Christ Jesus, you are righteous. God wants you to believe this about yourself, so your heart will not condemn you. God's flow of love and grace goes, not just to you, but through you. If you harbor a grudge or criticize or condemn others, you are stopping the flow of love and grace. And as soon as you start to believe in your own self-righteousness in comparison to others, your heart will start to condemn you.
Now let's talk about confessing your sins. I John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." From this passage, I was taught to search my own heart often and confess sins I had committed to God in order to receive His forgiveness and clear my conscience. And this made sense to me, because I had committed sins, and I felt guilty about them. Here is the problem. God is not the one bringing up my sins. He says I am righteous. So what does this verse mean? It is going to take an entire blog post to fully explain, (which I promise to do next time), but we do not confess sins in order to be forgiven. If we confess them, it is because they are already forgiven. Otherwise, John would not say just one chapter later, "I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name sake." "Forgiven," here, is in the perfect tense, meaning it is already completed and will never need to be repeated. Like I said, there is a great deal more that I would love to share about confession, but I will have to take it up next time.
Right now, let's assume I have cleared up the questions about righteousness and "unconfessed sins," and you believe what I am telling you. The problem is in actually executing it. I heard a pastor tell a great story about a woman in his church who said she felt as if her prayers were just bouncing off the ceiling. He said, "I know how we can solve this. I want you to curse God out loud right now." She said, "No. I can't do that. He will hear me." It is much easier to believe God is angry with you. That is why I want you to proclaim your righteousness in Christ, out loud, until you hear it and believe. Then, when you heart does not condemn you, you will know that the Father hears you.
Now let's look at the very last part of the promise. It says, "If we know that he hears . . . we know that we have the requests." Child of God, It is already a fact that He hears you. And in the Bible, If God hears, it means He honors the request. The phrase never contemplates an answer of "No." Jesus, when He prayed, said "I [know] that You always hear me." We are in Christ, so the Father also always hears us. The variable is whether or not we know it. But how do we "know" it? Should we strive to achieve greater faith and banish all doubt from our minds? I can tell you that the more you strive to achieve faith, the more doubt will come. No. The promise, here, says that "knowing" comes through confidence, and we have already established that confidence comes from a heart that does not condemn. Meditate on how much the Father loves you. He didn't spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for you. He is not angry with you. He is not condemning you. He is not against you, He is for you. When you realize how much He loves you, confidence will come.