The Answer to Answered Prayer
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
Abide – Have you ever prayed for something but it didn’t happen? Have you begged God for an answer but heard nothing? Have you ever asked, “Why?” but never understood? Jesus makes a statement that most of us find absolutely impossible to believe. Oh, we say that we believe in answered prayer but we don’t really believe in Jesus’ kind of answered prayer, do we? He doesn’t say, “Ask whatever you wish and sometimes God will act.” He doesn’t say, “If you’re good enough or if God is inclined to listen to you, you might get what you want.” He says, “Whatever you wish will come to pass.” That is a very big claim. Is that your experience?
R. A. Torrey points out that the key to this claim is found in the word “abide.” In Greek, it’s meno. In combination with the preposition en (in), it has a special significance in John’s writing. This phrase is used to describe the continuous, intimate union with Jesus and God. It is the same expression used to describe the vital, dynamic relationship between Jesus, the Son, and the Father. It is on this basis that Jesus could say, “and I knew that You hear Me always” as He stood before Lazarus’ tomb. People commonly recognized that whatever Jesus asked in prayer was accomplished, and now Jesus passes that privilege on to us. But the condition remains the same, just as it was in His life.
If you want all of your prayers answered, whatever they might be, you must have the same personal, intimate, totally surrendered relationship with Jesus that He has with the Father. Don’t throw up your hands and say, “That’s impossible!” Jesus says it is possible! Human experience confirms its reality. The fact that your prayers and mine are often not answered rests entirely on our shoulders. We are the ones who are not fully surrendered, totally committed, bonded in absolute trust to our Savior. We are the ones who hear His words but do not completely absorb them and act without hesitation on them. We are the ones who are out of alignment with the greatest promise for the life of the believer: God waits to answer your prayer, anxious to bring your desire to reality, when you abide in Him.
Now is the time for serious reflection. Are you praying without results? Then stop praying and start examining yourself. If Jesus says whatever you ask will be done, He means it. You and I are holding back the results because somewhere we are still holding on to our self-serving motives, our tiny disobedience, our unwillingness to fully commit, or our desire to have life on our terms. Prayer without results is impossible for those who truly abide.
