Praying to God

"If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." John 15:7

A quick study of this passage might help us to understand this as it caught my attention. I have heard that all we need to do is pray about it and God will answer our prayers. This verse seems to says otherwise. Lets begin at the word abide. It is the Greek word menō, it means to remain or abide in reference to a place, a time, or a condition. In this case, it is used in reference of a place. This place is Jesus as describe by the speaker which is Christ. Abide is also used to describe where Jesus' words in us. Again, it is reference to a place by the in and the subject is the Disciples.

Lets go back to the beginning of the verse and talk about the word "if." This verse is an if/then conditional statement. The condition is the abiding in Christ and Christ's words abiding in us. Then part is that he will do what ever we asked.

Let looks at the verse as a whole in context. Jesus has just describe that the Disciples are a branch on the vine and Jesus is that vine. Everyone that is not attached to the vine will parish but those who remain will bear much. Verse 8 also gives us clarification of why God will answer our prayers. God answers our prayers for His glory.

So when Jesus tells His Disciples that He will do anything they ask, it is because they are remaining in His teaching. The Disciples desires are to be the same desires of Jesus. John would later clarify in 1 John 5:14, saying "(a)nd this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us." (emphasis is mine) So our prayers should not be "Jesus, I need an A on this test." Instead, it should be something that He has or ordained according to His plan a purpose. Our prayers should be to help the advancement of the Gospel by praying to God that He will do something to glorify His name and not ours. We need to be reading His words, as written in the Bible, to understand His desires and purpose so that he can rightly pray so that God is glorified by His works.

John 4

One of my classes in on the Gospel of John. I have been learn a lot about who John is and also what he is trying to prove with signs that Jesus is Christ so people will believe. My assignment for tomorrow is John 4. I also have to read a commentary called Encountering John by Andreas J. Köstenberger. One thing that cought my attention is the fact that when Jesus tells his disciples that the harvest is ready when they brought him food in v. 31-38. Jesus is telling that the harvest ready to be saved and brought into a relationship with Jesus. John the Baptist did the sewing and now Jesus' Dicipiles need to reap the ready crop. Not only that, Jesus also states that, "Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonder, ... you will never believe." (v. 48 NIV) Köstenberger says that verse is telling that sign will not save people and that it is God alone who bring people to him. I hurt to think that our evangelism has missed this point when we reduced the gospel to say this prayer and you are saved. If a person wants to pray for salvation with me I will allow him, but I encourage them to make sure I am right. This also allows God to save them with out me taking the credit.