A clear conscience comes from a good heart, which gives us confidence before God. This daily devotional looks at how that facilitates God’s answer of our prayers.
Nuggets
- God fills our prayer requests when we abide in Him.
- God answers our prayers when we keep His commandments.
- God can answer our prayers when we do His Will.
Devotions in the Reassuring Our Hearts before God series
I don’t know if I said all of this right. I see the progression here, but it seems like it takes the scenic route to get where it is going.
Here is what I am trying to say in a nutshell.
God answers our prayers and gives us what we ask when we have our relationship with Him at the heart level. He wants to answer our prayers, but only can when we are obedient and asking in His Will.
We will ask in His Will when we have our relationship at the heart level because we have faith in Jesus, love for God and His disciples, and are obedient to Him.
See, it is a circular route.
Now, let’s see how I got there.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
The heart houses our inner moral character and our conscience.
Our conscience is the part of our nature that pronounces by God’s authority everything in His name and impacts our moral decisions as it points us to what is right and gives us pain or pleasure depending on the choice.
Receiving What We Ask
“and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him” (I Jn. 3: 22 ESV)
God fills our prayer requests when we abide in Him.
First off, we have to remember what we are talking about here. “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him” (I Jn. 3: 21-22 ESV).
God’s Will is that we get down to the heart level in following His laws and commandments and changing to have His character. The evidence we show to not be condemned is our belief that Jesus is our Savior, that we genuinely love God and other disciples, and our obedience to His laws and commandments.
I say that to reiterate that we have to be sincere in our relationship in order to receive what we ask of God. This has nothing to do with winning the lottery, getting a Lamborghini, or finding our soul mate.
It has everything to do with praying in God’s Will. John expands on this elsewhere.
- “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (Jn. 15: 7 ESV).
- “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us” (I Jn. 5: 14 ESV).
Keeping His Commandments
God answers our prayers when we keep His commandments.
Think about it. We said in the last devotion that getting the confidence need to the heart level is based solely on the status of our relationship with God. It is dependent on our obeying Him.
This is what God wants. He is not going to ignore our prayers if we are obeying His laws and commandments.
When our relationships are where they are supposed to be, we will be focusing on furthering God’s kingdom. We won’t be looking at the flash and splash of this world.
It isn’t just faith that will get our prayers answered. Faith is a gift from God that enhances the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives and distinguishes us from others.
Do What Pleases Him
God can answer our prayers when we do His Will.
We have to “… keep his commandments and do what pleases him” (I Jn. 3: 22 ESV). We have to be obedient to present the opportunities to receive God’s goodness. God’s goodness is His holy, pure, and righteous behavior.
- God’s holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- God’s purity stems from the fact that He cannot sin.
- God’s righteousness is the result of His being pure.
Let’s unpack that a second. Our prayers aren’t answered because we are obedient. Because we are obedient, our prayers can be answered.
Our prayers aren’t answered because we have faith. Our prayers are answered because our faith brings us to be like God.
Spurgeon nailed it. He wrote, “If you want power in prayer you must have purity in life.”
Resource
God is pure. He cannot sin. There are a lot of other attributes that we talked about last year.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Look what Finney said. He talked about approaching God with disinterest.
If we aren’t interested in what God is interested in, our relationship isn’t right. If we are disinterested, we don’t have the confidence that God even hears us.
When we know without a doubt that our relationships are right with God, we know He will hear and answer our prayers. Finney wrote, “The soul, being in sympathy with God, feels as God feels; so that for God to deny its prayers is to deny His own feelings, and refuse to do the very thing He Himself desires. Since God cannot do this, He cannot fail of hearing the prayer that is in sympathy with His own heart.”
Resource
We are to pray with what interests God in mind. “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt. 6: 10 ESV).
It is all about praying in the Spirit. Finney described that as a deep praying of the heart. It is the state of the soul knowing it is in submission to God.
The Spirit is working within us if we are praying in the Spirit. We are imitating Jesus.
Glossary
Why do our prayers get answered? Vaughan said, “It is because God is a Father, and therefore of Himself loves to listen to His children’s petitions, and to give them everything they ask. It is because every believer praying, prays in Christ — he presents Christ — he is in Christ. Hence the almost omnipotence of prayer. It is because whatever true prayer goes up to the throne of God, it is the Holy Ghost who prays it. Thus the whole Trinity meets to make the prayer of the weakest Christian, and this is the cause why prayer gets answered.”
Resource
Faith, obedience, devotion, submission. That is how we get answers to prayers.
Making the Connections
Finney made a great point. We think God will answer our prayers exactly in the way we pray them.
Not so. Finney wrote, “Yet let it be noted here that God may not answer every prayer according to its letter; but He surely will according to its spirit.”
Resource
When we are asking God to take care of our needs, He will. It just may not be the lottery, Lamborghini, and soul mate we are asking for.
God answering a prayer His way is still God answering our prayers. He doesn’t have to answer it our way for it to be considered answered.
Unfortunately, worldview people limit God to what they think and want. They use that excuse to not believe in Him.
God cannot answer our prayers until we have confidence in Him. That confidence is only brought through a right relationship with Him.
But we think we can come to God without this confidence. We come with our doubts and arrogance in the forefront, asking God — demanding God — to answer our prayers word for word. We ignore our consciences telling us we are in the wrong while we are petitioning the pure Sovereign God to do everything we demand.
It is only through His love that God doesn’t smack us in place.
How Do We Apply This?
- Be obedient to God so that He can answer our prayers.
- Repent and ask forgiveness of sin in our lives so that our relationships will be write with Him.
Resource
I’ll say it again. Faith, obedience, devotion, submission. That is how we get answers to prayers.
Father God. You are Sovereign God. You are pure and without sin. Lord, we want to be like You. We want to be interested in the things You are: expanding Your kingdom by bringing others to know Jesus as their personal Savior. Help us to grow in faith and obedience. We can only do this by submitting to You and deepening our devotion to You. Amen.
What do you think?
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