And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.     Matthew 21:22 ESV

It would be very easy to read that Scripture passage and have it mean what we want it to mean. We would all like to think that we could ask God for absolutely anything like winning the lottery or our favorite football team winning the Super Bowl and God would grant our request.

But there is that little qualifier in there that word, “If”. If you have faith, you can ask in prayer and will receive. Now, here we could say, well I have faith that God will give me whatever I want. But let’s look at what this really means. Let’s look at the context. Jesus was hungry and went to a fig tree wanting fruit, but it had no fruit. It only had leaves. He said, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” and at once the tree withered.

His disciples were amazed and asked Him how this tree withered so quickly. Jesus tells them that if they have faith and do not doubt, anything they ask for will be given them. He goes on to tell them that they could even tell a mountain to be thrown into the sea. and it will be done. He then tells them if they believe they will receive whatever they ask for in prayer.

Let’s talk about believing and having faith. When we believe in God and understand His vast power, we get to know Him. We can’t get to know who He truly is and not love Him. When we understand the great love He has for us, we come to know and love Him. When we do this, we have faith. When we have this love and faith and reverential awe of God, we want to do His will. When we want to do His will, our prayers line up with His will.

In Matthew 6:1, Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done.”  When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane just before his arrest and crucifixion (Luke 22:42), He prayed asking God to remove this from Him, but prayed, “Not my will, but thy will be done.”

Yesterday we talked about why God might not hear our prayers. We are told in 1 John 5:14 that we can be confident that if we ask for anything according to His will, He hears us.

God is a good Father. He knows what is best for us because He knows what our future holds.  He’s not going to give us anything that could be harmful to us. He will always do what’s best for us even if we can’t see that at the time.

Our focus should first be on Him and then on others. When we pray what is in His will or we pray (or intercede) for others, God hears our prayers. I will admit that it was really hard for me to pray for God’s will be done when I was praying for healing of a loved one.

Our Scripture passage yesterday was from James 4:3 and it said that we ask and do not receive because we ask wrongly, to spend it on our passions. This means that we ask for things selfishly and with the wrong motives.

When we take today’s Scripture and expect God to give us anything we want, we are pulling Scripture out of context and this is a dangerous thing for us to do. This is why it is so important to not just read our Bibles, but to study them. When we are in constant communication with the Lord through studying His word and prayer, it is much easier to discern what His good, acceptable and perfect will is. We are told in Romans 12:2 that we are not to be conformed to this world, but that we should be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that by testing we can be able to discern what is God’s good, perfect and acceptable will.

It’s so much easier to talk to someone you know. We get to know God through prayer and Bible study. Find a good Bible teaching church and get involved there. Get to really know God. When we really know Him, we are better equipped to understand His will in our lives. When we are better equipped to understand His will in our lives, we are able to pray that His will be done and mean it because we know that’s what’s best for us.

God will give us whatever we ask for in faith because when we ask in faith, we ask believing in who God truly is. We ask wanting to be in accord with His will.

Get to know Him, trust in Him, and love Him. When our will aligns with His will, our hearts desire what He desires. Psalm 37:4 tells us to delight ourselves in the Lord and He will give us our hearts desire.

Have a great day!