To Pray in Confidence // 1 John 5:14
How do you read today’s verse? I want to break it down in reverse order.
For starters, we see that God hears us. God always hears us, but that doesn’t mean that God answers in our preferred way; so, we need to make sure we pray and seek to get into God’s will. This makes me think of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when He said, “not what I want but what you want” (Matthew 26:39, CEB). Once we commit to living in God’s will, then we can approach God and do so confidently. This brings me to Hebrews 4:16: “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (NIV). This verse reveals a very important key to seeking God in prayer, which is to receive God’s mercy and find His grace for help. This means we need God’s mercy to protect us from all the things we seek that aren’t in His will and embrace the grace that reveals the things we could never consider apart from God.
Let’s face it, reading a verse like 1 John 5:14 at a surface level can cause all kinds of conflict in people when they do not experience God answering prayers as we prefer. What we see after a deeper exploration is about humbling ourselves to the Lord, receiving His mercy and grace that changes us, and allowing that change to redirect the things for which we pray. So, will you approach your prayers to God differently? Will you do so with the assurance that you are forgiven and saved, and as a result, set forth to live in confidence that God’s way is always the best way? I pray so!
