PT-2 "Answered Prayer" (1 John 5:14-17)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/2/2025 9:52 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus:  PT-2 “Answered Prayer”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  1 John 5:14-17

 

            Message of the verses:  “14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. 17All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.”

 

            “14 And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. 15 And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for. 16 If you see a Christian brother or sister sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it. 17 All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death (NLT).”

 

            I have put the verses from the NLT in order to help me better understand them a bit better.  I mentioned that these are very important verses that John writes here and so it is very important for me to take my time and not put too much onto these Spiritual Diaries so that they can be thought through, that the Holy Spirit will be the One who causes us to understand them.

 

            I will begin with a quotation from MacArthur’s commentary this evening:  “The sure promise of God is that when believers boldly and freely come to Him with their requests, He will hear and answer.  If we ask anything according to His will, John wrote, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.  Hearing in this context refers to more than merely God’s being aware of believers’ requests; it also means that He grants the requests which we have asked from Him.  That is nothing less than a blank check to ask God for anything, but it comes with one important qualifier:  the request must be according to His will.”

 

            Now looking at the last sentence it causes me to think about the things that Jesus was praying in the garden of Gethsemane, as He asked His Father to take this cup from Him, and then says “Not my will but yours be done.”  Jesus knew why He was sent to planet earth, and that was that He came the first time to take care of the sin problem, and the only way that He could have done that was by going to the cross and die for the sins of the world, by going through the most difficult things that He every went through, and I believe that the first one was to be separated from His Father for those three hours, and then becoming sin for us, the One who knew no sin in order to pay for our sins.  So the bottom line was that Jesus asked to have that cup taken away from Him, but then said “not My will but yours be done.”

 

            MacArthur goes on:  “To pray according to God’s will assumes first of all being saved.  God is not obligated to answer the prayers of unbelievers.  He may choose to do so when it suits His sovereign purposes, but God does not obligate Himself to any unbeliever.  John illustrated this principle when he wrote earlier in this epistle, ‘Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.’ (3:21-22).  The Lord Jesus Christ made a similar statement, recorded in John 15:7:  ‘If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you [the definition of a genuine believer], ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you’ (cf. v. 16).  Only believers, those who obey God’s commandments, can have the certainty that He will answer their prayers.

 

            “Praying according to God’s will also mean confessing sin.  The psalmist wrote in Psalm 66:18, If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear’ (cf. 1 Peter 3:7).”

“You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered” (1 Peter 3:7).

 

4/2/2025 10:20 PM