Click or tap book name
Use <control> drag to
scroll
Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
About
Links
Home
"
Navigator
1 John 5:14
Comments
In 1 John 3:22 the apostle links confidence in prayer to a good conscience, and now he links it to assurance of faith. The Lord loves us as individuals; our prayers do not have to break down great barriers of reluctance within him but only to humbly place our needs before him, and he is ready to bless us in response.John sets a limit on what we may ask when he says ‘according to his will’, but this should not discourage us in any way. God’s will here is not his secret will but his revealed will. John does not say this to constantly cast doubt on whether God will answer us, because, unknown to us, this or that particular request does not happen to align precisely with his secret purpose. To introduce that idea would be to undermine all confidence in prayer and take away the freedom which he has just given us. Nor do we see this reserve in those who brought their urgent requests to Christ when he was on earth. His sovereignty is outside and beyond all our freedom to ask, and our requests can never take him by surprise. What the restriction means is that our requests should not contravene a very clearly defined boundary and ask for something that he has already said he will not grant us.
Application
If the Spirit is in us, the things we will desire most are the things which advance his kingdom and therefore this great freedom in prayer is safely given to those who love God. This is the freedom which every child has in asking his father and it is precious to the father because he wants the child to come to him with requests that are important to the child.
Questions
It is a serious misunderstanding of this verse that says, before we can make our requests some prior step is required in order to discover whether what we ask is his specific, secret will or not. No such procedure is described in Scripture.
Outline
Purpose
Introduction