John 15:7-8 NLT 
 
'But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.'
  
What do you think is the primary purpose of prayer? There are many opinions on it, but it can only be understood through our relationship with God. My own view is that prayer is entering into the very presence of God. There are many reasons we would want to take that step, only one of which is to make demands of God.  
 
Today we too easily understand the word ‘want’ in its material context; goods or services to improve my life. Jesus appears to approach ‘want’ from an entirely different angle. In the Lord’s Prayer, the only prayer Jesus taught his disciples, the opening declares: “Our Father” (Matthew 6:9). This tells me that when we pray, we’re always to be conscious that we’re part of something so much greater than our own personal horizons. Everything Jesus and the whole of the New Testament teaches encourages us to think of more than ourselves. 
 
So, when Jesus says I can ask for anything that I want, this is not an invitation to plead for self-gratification. I may, like Jesus in Gethsemane, express my felt preference, yet quickly add: “not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). My preference cannot compete with God’s express will and purpose. I can choose to walk away from that will, but I cannot simply order a bespoke design for my life. I’ve always to balance my personal desires with those of God’s kingdom, for it is God’s name, God’s kingdom and God’s will that fill the first half of the Lord’s Prayer.  
 
As I’ve deepened my own God encounter through continuous prayer I’ve increasingly lost my appetite for all ‘those vain things that charmed me most’ when younger, in both age and faith. Too often in the past my requests, if granted, would have severely limited my fruitfulness. Be careful what you wish for! Consider prayer as your opportunity to journey deeper into God’s heart.  
 
QUESTION: Why do you think we so often end up seeing prayer just as a way of getting what we want?  
 
PRAYER: May your will guide my prayers, Lord. 
 

Released on 24 Jul 2020