Comfort Comes from Trusting Christ's Promise (John 14:13-14)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/16/2016 10:43 AM

My Worship Time                                   Focus:  Comfort Comes from Trusting Christ’s Promise

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 14:13-14

            Message of the verses:  “13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”

            Now here is a verse that I fear many of us my misunderstand, that we may think that the whatever in this verse makes God out to be some kind of cosmic Santa Clause, but that surely is not the case.

            Let us begin with a quote from Dr. Warren Wiersbe:  “The ‘whatsoever’ in John 14:13 is qualified by all that God has revealed in His Word about prayer; likewise, the ‘anything’ in John 14:14.  God is not giving us carte blanche; ‘in My name’ is the controlling element.  To know God’s name means to know His nature, what He is, and what He wants to do.  God answers prayer in order to honor His name; therefore prayer must be in His will (1 John 5:14-15).  The first request in ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ is ‘Hallowed be Thy name’ (Matt. 6:9).  Any request that does not glorify God’s name should not be asked in His name.”

            In our last SD on John we looked at what was going to happen when Jesus went to the Father, that His disciples and those that they would lead to the Lord would do greater things because of the coming of the Holy Spirit to work in their lives to accomplish things for the cause of Christ and bring glory to His name.  Now we see in verses 13-14 the Lord gave the disciples another incredible pledge.  MacArthur writes “During their time with Him, they had depended on Jesus to supply all their needs (cf. Luke 22:35).  He had provided food for them (Luke 5:4-6; John 21:5-12), and on one occasion even paid Peter’s taxes (Matt. 17:24-27).  Now He was about to leave them, and they, having left everything to follow Him (Matt. 19:27), must have wondered where their resources would come from.”

            Now as we look at this quote and the verses in our SD for today we know the answer to that question as to where their resources would come from, and I believe that the answer is also seen in the quote from Dr. Wiersbe, that they would come when they asked in Jesus’ name so that they would bring honor and glory to the Lord.  “so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” 

            MacArthur goes on to talk about what it means to ask in Jesus’ name as it is not some kind of magic formula that will obligate God to grant every selfish request that people pray to Him about.

            “First, it means to make requests consistent with God’s will and the purposes of His kingdom.”

            “Second, it is to acknowledge one’s spiritual poverty, lack of self-sufficiency, and utter unworthiness to receive anything from God based on one’s own merits (Matt. 5:3).  It is to approach God based on the merits of Jesus Christ (cf. John 16:26-28) and to acknowledge one’s complete dependence on Him to supply every need (Matt. 6:25-32; Phil. 4:19).”

            “Finally, it is to express a sincere desire that God would be glorified in His answer.  It is to align one’s requests with the Father’s supreme goal of glorifying the Son.  When believers pray in this way, they pray in keeping with Jesus’ name—His person, His purposes, and His preeminence.”

            What Jesus was teaching His disciples as He was giving comfort to them is as applicable today as it was in the upper room 2000 years ago.  We know that the world is full of false hopes but what the Lord was teaching is not a false hope.  We know that there will be times in our lives when our faith will be stretched, but when that time comes we are to rely on the Lord, His Word, the preaching of His Word to give us the comfort that we need to get to the end of what He is teaching us realizing it is for our good and for His glory even though many times we will not understand it.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There have been times in my life when I truly have not understood what God wants me to do in certain situations and then the Lord shows me what I am to do, and this gives hope to me.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I have been praying about some things that are going on in my life at this time, and one of them is to write some prayer requests down for people in our church to pray about as we are going to have a 24 hour fast and pray event to seek God’s favor on a project we are looking to do.  I have been thinking about trying to have the right prayer requests for half hour increments so people can pray in the Lord’s will for our project and today’s lesson has been very helpful for me and I thank the Lord for this answer from Him today.

Memory verse for the week:  (Romans 6:16) “16 “Do you not know that when your present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either sin resulting to death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Ninth (darkness)” (Exodus 10:21).

Today’s Bible question:  “What strange gift did King Herod give to his step daughter?”

Answer in our next SD.

11/16/2016 11:19 AM