My dears,
We’re finally closing our reflections on the prayers of Jesus, and instead of one text for today’s Holy Nougat, there are three, all interrelated!
““In that day, you will ask Me nothing. Amen, amen I tell you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.”
John 16:23 TLV
“And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”” John 14:13-14 TLV
““If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.”
John 15:7 TLV
My dears, I hasten to say that getting God’s No does not always mean that we are not abiding in God. I also wish to note that use of Jesus’ name doesn’t always guarantee a yes. Having been disappointed in the past with a clear NO in prayer, actually more than one NO, this statement of Jesus is a challenge to my sensibilities. How do I trust that God’s gonna give any thing to me? What do we do when we do all by the book and yet it seems that we are told No?
One aspect of the mystery of prayer is that despite the PARTS (Passion, Alignment, in Relationship, Thanksgiving, Sealed) being in place; Prayer is NOT about formulae. Each element of the PARTS has its own value – believing in what we pray for (Jesus prayed till His sweat was as blood); in God’s will ; we are connected with God; watering with thanks and covered in faith (with an amen) – and should be given priority. But I maintain that a No is also opportunity for us to take time to confer with God.
Is it a case of ‘All things work together for good’?, that God has another plan, a different yes? Is it that we’re asked to persevere in prayer? How then do we pray? How do we maintain relationship with God? Remember Jesus asking God why He’d been forsaken; Moses asking God about the return to Egypt; and countless others?
Maybe it is that as our intimacy with God increases, our prayers are likelier to reflect God’s yes. For as we understand God’s heart, our requests are likelier to be in alignment with God’s yes. Perhaps it’s about how we abide, or where we abide, I cannot say for sure. But I do know that intimacy increases alignment.
I pray that reflecting on Jesus’ prayers and His thoughts on prayer have offered each of us greater intimacy with Christ in these times.
In Christ’s love and grace . . .
