Humble Confidence

At the top of John chapter 5, John explains that anyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ—the prophesied Messiah—has become a child of God.

When we become children of our Heavenly Father, we not only inherit a forever kingdom and an incorruptible legacy, but we’re also granted the privilege of approaching the King of all kings. 

John said it this way: 

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭5:14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

As the text continues, John reiterates the fact that God loves to give us what we ask for—when it’s asked with the right motive. 

Think about it this way: is a child concerned about approaching his loving parent for a snack, for a hug, for advice, or for help?

When we come to God with a similar childlike confidence—in sincerity, humility, trust, and even desperation—we can be certain that He hears us. When we submit a request, we might get a yes, we might get a no, or we might get a not yet. But regardless…

We can know that God hears us as we trust Him with our prayers.

The author of the book of Hebrews put it eloquently: “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” (Hebrews 4:16 NLT)

Whether you need wisdom, direction, or practical help, you can come boldly to our gracious God. You can come to God with your praises and doubts, opinions and concerns, thankfulness and questions. 

My Thoughts

I hate to write this because I don’t want you to misunderstand what I am saying, but I John 5:14 is one of those scriptures that I don’t like to share. For years, this particular verse was what I call the “prosperity gospel” of “Name it and claim it” fame. I am not a proponent of this particular method of trying to attract people to the Lord because I think it twists God’s Word and tries to get people to come to the Lord for the wrong reasons. On the other hand, as the writer of this devotional in the YouVersion points out, if we ask according to His will, then we can indeed expect answers. The caveat is that the answer may not be what we wanted or expected, but He will answer.

The problem I have with sharing this scripture verse is that people don’t always seek God’s will before praying and then get disappointed when He doesn’t answer. Or they don’t really want to know God’s will before their petitions because they already have a vision of what they plan to ask for. A bigger house, a powerful position or anything material is not promised in God’s Word. He says He will give us all that we need, not all that we desire. The only way to find out God’s will is to spend time with Him and His Word. The time we spend with God molds our will to be more like His and then when we pray, we can do so with confidence and expectation, knowing that what we are asking is something that God really wants to do for us. For example, God wants people to come to know Him, so we can certainly expect that praying for hearts to be open to Him is in His will. But, we also have to be aware that God is not going to make that person we pray for into some kind of responsive robot. They have to want to know Him, choose to know Him and repent. God can create situations in which the sinner comes face to fact with the reality of their sins, but He does not change their heart just because we ask for it; the sinner has to change. God has already provided the sacrifice, once for all, and He waits patiently for the sinner to come to His throne of grace. So, although we pray for salvation for a friend or loved one, once we pray this prayer that is part of God’s will, we have to accept the fact that God can do all things but He chooses to limit Himself to the individual making the correct free will choice. We cannot just “name it and claim it” because there is a lot going on in the spiritual realm that we may not be aware of.

The steps are not to see the shiny new toy and then pray that you will get one just like it. Absolutely not! We spend time with God in Bible study and reflection and then we pray according to His will that He has revealed to us in our time together. The final step is the hardest one. Then we wait, confident that God is working out His will in His time and for our good always.

Thus, with all that being said, I have difficulty sharing and telling you my thoughts about this verse since I don’t want you to take the verse out of context or misunderstand my words. Do I believe God answers prayers? Without a doubt! Do I believe that God answers every prayer just the way we expect? That answer is a firm “no” because I believe God answers prayers according to His good will, not mine and not in my established timeline.