Asking for Anything

I don’t know whether any of you reading this today have been fortunate enough to have ever received a blank cheque. But perhaps that only happens in movies. Some Christians might interpret our verse for today, John 15:7, to mean the Lord will gives us a blank cheque, forgetting that there are conditions attached to His promise.

So, what are the conditions for asking for something? They are that we remain in Jesus, and that His words remain in us. Then we can ask for whatever we wish, and it will be done for us. For when we are remaining in Jesus, and His words are remaining in us, we will be uttering only His words when we open our mouth. For Jesus said that it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. Our mouth will only speak that which is of the Lord, because that will be our heart’s desire, and God will grant that prayer.

But it might be that are we quoting John 15:7 in our prayers without fulfilling the conditions attached to it? In James 4:3 we read, ‘When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.’  So, without the words of Jesus remaining in us, our motives might be guided by selfish motives and we won’t receive from God what we are asking for.

When Solomon was presented with an opportunity to ask for anything he wanted, he asked for a discerning heart to govern God’s people and to distinguish between right and wrong. His desire came from wanting to please the Lord and do His will.

‘The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for – both wealth and honour – so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life” (1 Kings 3:10-14).

Finally, let’s look at what John, the disciple Jesus loved, who walked with Jesus, ministering alongside Him, said about asking: ‘Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him’ (1 John 3:21-22).