1 John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
God promises to hear our prayers. “Ask and you shall receive.” We pray because God commands and because He promises to hear us. We pray because we have a need and we know Who to go to meet that need. ”What a Friend we have in Jesus.” We pray to the Father in Jesus’ name, as instructed, ”Our Father in heaven” means He can (He is Almighty God in heaven) and He will (He is our Father who cares) hear us and grant us what we ask and desire. We respond to the Gospel of forgiveness, life, and salvation by faith in prayer requests to the One who hears and cares.
There is a condition attached to this promise: “if we ask anything according to his will.” We do not have to append ”if it be Thy will” to the ask; we are to know the will of God ahead of time as we enter into prayer. God will always and only respond according to His will; and we know that it always good and gracious toward us. We surrender to the good will of God: ”Thy will be done.”
When we don’t know the will of God in a specific matter, we trust the Spirit within us to present our requests to God the Father according to His will. Romans 8:26-27: ”We do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes…for the saints according to the will of God.” In other words, we trust the Spirit to turn even misguided prayers into the perfect will of God. Then we know that he hears us and we have the petitions we desired.
This promise gives us great encouragement to pray and a holy desire to present our requests before the Father. The promise also prompts us to believe that we may happily surrender to the will of God, for it will always be good for us according to His purpose.