And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
--1 John 5: 14-15
The key to getting answers to prayer is to ask according to God's will. In other words, if I learn to ask for that which He already plans to give me, the answer is a slam dunk. I can't miss. When I know of a surety that I have asked correctly, I can have complete confidence I will receive what I asked for.
So, if I want answers to my prayers, I must learn to listen to the Holy Spirit, who reveals to me the mind and will of God, and then I have to go with it. When I stop fighting with God about what I want and submit to Him for what He wants, everything goes a lot smoother.
God is going to get His way sooner or later anyway. I might as well sign up for the program right up front and get on the right track early.
This struck a chord with me because I've learned about this personally over the last year (perhaps surprisingly, it didn't really have much to do with the pandemic). Sometimes it takes a prayer to find out if it's okay to ask for a particular thing, and if the answer is yes, then that confidence comes in asking for that thing. It seems kind of "meta" to ask if you can ask for something, but I have found it to lead me to answers to prayer.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughts, Ben. Praying to learn how to pray is one of the many paradoxes the Lord seems to love.
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