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.

Wow! A second post in one day.

So it is not a record but I want to express something that I has been bugging me. I was reading on a post to pray for a twenty-something that is, I would guess, deathly ill because the person stated that she was to young to die. The more I thought of what was said the more I started to bug. I started to think about was the person really to young to die. Is it even possible to die to young? I do not think that it is possible to die to young because God has control and not me. If God was not a kind God (like he is), he has all the rights to destroy us and think twice about it because of our sins. It is God who gives and who takes away and also God who allows us to live on his earth. So if God desires us not leave past a certain point then he will takes from this earth. I know that people might have a problem with this but I like that logical it is how it stands. Now, I have not searched the Bible to make sure I am right but I know some verse that could prove my claim but I need to make sure that in context that they are right.

I do want to stress that I do feel sorrow and that it is a bad thing when it happens but God is in control and I can rest in that assurance that not matter what happens he is there.

Stand to Reason: 10 Tips to Help Your Prayer Life

The article from Stand to Reason are some tips that might help your pray life out more. I have noticed that I can always pray more then what I do. I think most people have the same problem so here a resource I found. STR is a great site also to find answers about different topics that people might have like post-modern thing to abortion. STR tries to present the facts in a logical way and also prove why Christianity is a thoughtful reason in the areas of philosophy and ethics. I hope that you enjoy the article.

Stand to Reason: 10 Tips to Help Your Prayer Life

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