Does God really mean that I should ask for whatever I want?
Mark 11:24, John 14:13-14, John 15:7-8, John 16:23-24
As I have continued to study how Jesus trained his disciples to pray, I scoured the four gospels to learn what he told them to pray for. I was looking for a wonderful list of specifics, especially because Romans 8:26 tells me I don’t know what to pray for. But apart from the famous details in the Lord’s Prayer which I wrote about last time, I did not find a vast and varied array of things Jesus commanded his followers to pray for. Instead, I repeatedly ran into the pattern displayed in the verses I have cited above: ask for anything you wish, for whatever you want… and it will be given to you. I was surprised by this. And it led me to meditate.
the things we ask for cannot be those things that worldlings would wish for if they rubbed an oil lamp. We must ask for the things that align with God’s will…
Clearly there are all kinds of things that would pop in our minds of a worldly, carnal nature that should be ruled out. James says about prayer, “You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4:2-3). We also know that Jesus taught us to pray to our Father, “May your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” So, the things we ask for cannot be those things that worldlings would wish for if they rubbed an oil lamp. We must ask for the things that align with God’s will for the world as revealed in scripture. All else is vain, and God will not answer.
So why did Jesus use this kind of sweeping language—ask for whatever you wish? I think it’s because prayer is so comprehensive in its scope, covering everything from the massive mountain-moving issues that shape human history down to the tiniest details like sparrows falling to the ground. If Christ were to attempt a detailed and accurate list of what we should pray for, the world would not be able to contain the books that would be written.
Instead, he trains our minds and enflames our hearts by the Spirit’s leading in all matters of prayer. God wants us to look with eyes of faith all around us all the time, and then, discerning God’s will in scripture and God’s leading by the Holy Spirit, pray with knowledge and passion. About what? About whatever we see, whatever we wish would happen in those circumstances.
Christ is training us to sit in the presence of God by the Spirit and learn his mind and heart. God reveals himself and his works to us in increasing measure as we are conformed to Christ. The more we have his commands and obey them, the more he will manifest himself to us (John 14:21). As we are increasingly conformed to Christ, who said that the Father shows him all that he is doing (John 5:20), then we will more and more pray about anything we see according to his will. And he will do it in answer to our prayers.
