1 John 5:14

There is boldness in the presence of the God who has given us eternal life in His Son. This comes right after John says he wrote the letter so that believers might know they have eternal life. Clearly this is not a bare doctrine. Those who have that life have liberty and confidence in the presence of the God who is love.

Without knowing that we have eternal life, and that we are His children, such boldness would be impossible. No wonder that those who do not believe we enjoy both of these now dismiss such boldness as improper... It is the main driving principle of Christian prayer. It ought to run through our every petition.

How can we tell the Lord's will apart from our own wishes and imaginings? By His word. If I go and pray for a thing not founded on the knowledge of the Lord's will as revealed in His word, I cannot have confidence about it. If He were to grant me what I desire, He might very likely only be answering my own foolish, corrupt will.

In the next chapter our Lord gives further teaching on the same subject: "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). Here it is according to the will of God, which rules out everything not of that character. But our Lord says, "what you wish"; and this brings before us a very important aspect of prayer... We abide in Christ, always remembering that we depend on Him for everything and that without Him we can do nothing. His words remain in us, shaping us after His own mind and forming Himself in us. Then we cannot help but express His own thoughts and His own desires. So "what we wish" must, in that case, be "according to His will."

Such is the boldness we have towards Him: if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. This means our own wills must be broken, and we must be spiritual. Without that, our thoughts and feelings do not move in the line of His will.

Here is a confidence in God that applies to all the details of life I may be called to pass through... How wonderful this is! God's ear is always open to us. Surely we would not want to ask for anything contrary to His will... Suppose I am in earnest to do God's will — to preach the gospel, for instance — and there are hindrances in the way, Satan in the way. I have only to ask. All God's power is at my disposal, because His ear is open to me.

If we know that He hears us, we also know that we have the petitions we asked of Him. He, according to His perfect love and wisdom, reserves to Himself to answer our petitions in His own time and way... it is our privilege to make known our petitions to God, but not to dictate to God as to His answer. He may see fit to keep us waiting, but in the meantime we have the comfort of knowing that He listens to everything we ask that is in accordance with His will.

When prayers go unanswered, we gladly recognise that they were not according to His will. It is not true faith when fanatics, like faith-healers, say that God must do certain things. That is not faith but presumption.