Praying in Faith

     I've recently been reading in John about the last night of the Lord Jesus' earthly life and the treasure trove of wisdom and encouragement and truth that He gives His beloved disciples.  Only He knows what the following terrible hours will bring and all the confusion, despair, fear, and doubt that will assail His chosen ones.
     As I read His words, I thought of our Savior lovingly, but urgently, sharing the deepest things of His heart with this tiny band of believers late into the dark watches of the night.  All the while, His sleepy-eyed disciples listen, grateful,  but increasingly perplexed and concerned about what He is telling them.  Little do they know how they will return to the bittersweet but beautiful memory of this quiet final evening with their Lord and all His precious words as they recall and contemplate every truth He was teaching them... and us.  We have these very words of Christ enabling us to be right there with the disciples on that dark, still evening, listening to the Savior and savoring His every word.  We all value and record for posterity the "last words" spoken before someone's death--and here we have the very words of God as He prepared to die as a man for us.  Consider that for a moment:  Almighty God.  Almighty God's last words.  Almighty God's last words before dying.  God dying for us.  Incredible.
     There is so much there, every word saturated with His grace and love.  As I read Jesus' words in John, I feel completely inadequate to even begin to contemplate the depths of His meaning and His heart.  Such riches expressing how much He loves us and all He will do for us as well as about how we should love, how we should serve, how we should abide, how we should pray and on and on.  
     But for today, I have just been struck by a verse on prayer (since I"m reading a wonderful devotion on prayer with some friends):  "Truly, truly I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He will give it to you.  Until now you have asked nothing in my name.  Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." (John 16:23-24)
     Honestly, these kinds of verses have always troubled me a bit--they sound a little like "name it and claim it" or "prosperity gospel" kind of promises that I just don't fully understand.  We have all prayed prayers that God seemingly didn't answer in the way we hoped, and we wonder, what's wrong?  We search in vain for some magic formula or some addition to our faith that might enable our prayers to fall within this "whatever you ask... He will give it to you" promise.
     But there's no formula.  And there's no magic.  There's something much greater, more mysterious, and infinitely more powerful: a sovereign, all-wise, all-loving, all-powerful God.
     We pray in faith to a God who hears our every prayer and answers according to His perfect will and plan and for our greater good.  So how do we reconcile our unanswered prayers with this promise of "whatever you ask... He will give to you?"   That was where I struggled.  And then I read this by Alvin Vandergriend:
     "Praying in faith is not an inner conviction that God will act according to our desires if only we believe hard enough.  It involves believing that God will always respond to our prayers in accord with His nature, His purposes, and His praises.
     God does not want us simply to toss requests at Him, hoping that some of them will be answered.  He wants us to ask, knowing He is there, claiming what He promises, trusting that He will act in line with His nature and that His purposes will be achieved.  That's praying in faith.
      When you ask a person for something in good faith, you don't ask for something the person would not be willing to give.  I could never, for example, ask my parents to give me more than my share of their inheritance.  I know them too well to make such a selfish and unfair request. Similarly, if you truly know God, you will only ask for what is in accord with His will and not anything that is purely selfish."
     Wow.  That is so true.  The more we come to know God, the more we will love Him.  And the more we love Him,  the more we will trust Him.  And the more we trust Him, the more we will pray in faith and in accordance with His will.  And the more we pray according to His will, the more exciting and supernatural answers we will experience in response to our prayers.  No wonder Jesus said, "Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."  Answers to prayer and fullness of joy--sign us up for that, Lord!  But it begins with knowing and loving Him better and better.
     Help us, Father, to know and love You more intimately today than yesterday.  Increase our faith and enable us to pray in faith in accordance with Your will, because we know and love our Abba.  And might we see Your mighty hand at work in our lives in response to our prayers.  To God be the glory.