“And we have this confidence in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, we know that what we have asked him for is ours.”
1 John 5:14-15 (NAB)
In the midst of economic forecasts of a coming recession, there has been a lot of talk on the financial news that we are only weeks away from reaching our nation’s debt ceiling. Financial analysts are warning of an economic collapse and recession in this country. I can’t help but reflect on the few biblical examples of how God’s people fared during previous economic hard times. We may not have a Joseph placed in command over our nation’s economy, as he was during the seven year famine in Egypt, but God is still on the throne in each of our own lives. We may not have the prophet Elijah residing in our home, blessing and refilling our empty jars with daily provisions, but Jesus lives in our homes with us, and He is our provider. The Israelites, after their great deliverance from slavery, found themselves in a difficult place, out in a wilderness with no food or water anywhere. God didn’t lead them there to starve to death, He led them there so they would learn to cling to Him. When they cried out to God, He sent them food from heaven and water out of a rock. Whether we are to face a wilderness through an economic challenge or in the form of spiritual dryness, God has one single motive in bringing us to the point where we will cling to Him, and His only motive is love. Sometimes it requires difficult times for us to cling to God. He loves us so much that He longs to reveal His extravagant love to each one of us. When everything is going well, and we are not struggling in any area, we may loosen our grip. It is in our troubles and moments of need that we cling to Him and that’s when God can shine for us. If everything went smoothly without a problem, we would never see the greatness of God. We all need a Savior, and God intends to never let us forget it. Self sufficiency can go only so far, before we discover our insufficiency. John clung to Jesus, physically, spiritually and emotionally throughout the three short years he lived with Him. He wrote this scripture today, to help increase our confidence in God. We all need more of a hunger for God, to make us cling to Him as John did. He tells us that this is our confidence in Him, that if we ask anything, according to His will, He hears us, and if He hears us, then we know that we have what we have asked Him for. John reminds us to ask “according to His will”, and to be confident that God will take care of us. Our confidence is based on God’s love for us, not because He is a magic grantor of wishes. We don’t wish, we pray. He is our Father in heaven who loves us, and we can have confidence in prayer because Jesus told us to. Jesus came to show us the Father, and He is the one who goes to the Father on our behalf. Timothy wrote,”For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5)
With Jesus as our mediator, we have confidence that when He told us,
“If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:14) Let’s believe in the Father’s love for us and in our mediator, Jesus. We do not have to fear the economic recession that is talked about because we have the same God of biblical history, who miraculously fed His people in the wilderness, who filled the widow’s empty jars each day, and who led Joseph to keep storehouses full of grain in preparation of the famine. He loves us, He lives within us, and He wants us to pray with confidence, so He can shine His love in our lives today.