Thread by @GPrater85015

#GeraldsDevotional
Promises of Jesus – Our Prayers and Requests

At the end of yesterday’s devotional scripture, Jesus told His disciples of how their joy would be complete after He left them (died) and returned. He told them in John 16:23-24 that at that time they would be able to ask for anything directly to the Father and that He would give

it to them.

Many of us today interpret that to mean that we are empowered and encouraged to pray for anything that we want in Jesus name and that God would do it. At the extreme, this could look like what has come to be known today as the “prosperity gospel” or “name it and

claim it.” In these popular teachings, people are taught that God wants them to have their best lives right here and now in this world. It places an emphasis on material and worldly blessings and cites verses like this to proclaim that God has given us the power in our prayers to

claim these things.

This type of prayer actually feeds our selfish nature (pride) and is actually the opposite of how the Spirit of God leads us (humble servant) when He is living in our hearts. That sounds like an extreme false gospel and so it is. But there are various degrees

of this type of approach towards prayer. It is very easy for us to incorporate types of prayer that are less extreme (and less noticeable) into our own prayers that we offer to the LORD.

We can easily justify our prayers by saying that we are praying for “good” things as we

perceive situations and circumstances. To be gentle in describing it, we can have a tendency to pray like this: “If I were in charge, THIS is what I would do…” and we fervently pray those things “in Jesus’ name.” The problem is that we are not in control and we are not God.

When we do this, we are trying to make God’s plan and desires revolve around what we think or what we want. When Jesus is truly our LORD and we have surrendered to Him, all of our lives and our prayers revolve around what He wants, even if we don’t understand. And in order to

know what He wants, we should spend more of our time in our prayers listening to what He says. Our LORD will tell us what we want or will tell us to just trust Him when we find it hard to understand.

In today’s scripture verses, Jesus gives us an excellent illustration of this

in the way that He relates to His Father in heaven. Notice what Jesus says about the words that He speaks and from where they come. Jesus uses this as a precursor to the power behind what we will be able to do when we follow behind His example and pray His words, not our own.

When we pray His words, we pray “in His place.” When we pray everything in His will, THAT is when we are truly praying “in His name.” Powerful prayers.

9 Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has

seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. 11 Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is

in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.

12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. 13 You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it,

so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. 14 Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it! - John 14:9-14
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