Chapter 5: Dr. MacArthur presents an aspect of Christian life that is of great necessity, like breathing, that is, prayer. There is no excuse for the believer to not have confidence in approaching their life source, the Living God.
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Praying is like breathing. You don’t have to think to breathe, because the atmosphere exerts pressure on your lungs and forces you to do it. When you are adopted into God’s family, you enter into a spiritual atmosphere where God’s presence and grace exert pressure, or influence, on your life. Prayer is the normal response to that pressure.
We just looked at how a believer who is convicted of his sin will confess his failure to obey God. As a believer, you can’t help confessing any more than you can help breathing—the pressure of disappointing God and being separated from intimacy with Him is too great to bear. Most amazing of all, the God of the universe, the Creator, wants to answer your prayers.
The apostle John wrote, “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:21–22). Notice that John said, “If our heart does not condemn us.” That refers back to verse 20, which says, “If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.” What was John referring to?
God knows the worst that is in us. He sees what’s in our hearts, and yet He does not condemn us. That was Paul’s point when he said, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1). Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. In spite of our failure to obey, God knows we long to follow His commands just as He knew of Paul’s struggle with sin and his desire to obey.
What we must do to restore the joy of our fellowship with God is confess and repent of our sins. When we have done that, then our hearts, sinful though they are, will not condemn us in His sight. When we are walking in obedience and our consciences are clear because we have confessed our sins, “we have confidence toward God” to rush into His presence. It is then that “whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:21–22).
The word for “confidence” here means “boldness” or “freedom of speech.” John is saying we can go before God with exactly what’s on our minds. We have an open relationship with God like a loving child has with his father. We have freedom to ask for whatever is on our hearts and know He will answer us. As Scripture instructs us, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
QUALIFICATIONS FOR ANSWERED PRAYER
For God to answer prayer, it has to be offered as the Bible instructs. You can’t just pray for a new car or a million dollars and expect God to come through like some cosmic Santa Claus. We’ve already discussed one of the essential qualifications for answered prayer: confession. Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” If you are harboring unconfessed sin in your life, you need to confess it so you can have that boldness to enter into God’s presence. God’s Word speaks of other qualifications that are just as important.
Pray According to His Will. John tells us, “This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14–15, emphasis added). Because you have confessed your sin, you can come boldly into God’s presence on any issue as long as it is according to His will.
The word for “hears” means more than just listening to the request; it implies that God is going to give the right answer. You have a blank check, in a sense. But it’s a check that can be drawn only on funds deposited in the bank account of God’s will. When our desires and requests are aligned with and subjugated to the will of God, we know that He will hear and grant what we seek of Him.
Pray in His Name. Jesus’ statement to the disciples on the night He was betrayed carries this incredible promise: “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:13–14). Jesus will do anything you ask if you ask according to His will! This was surely a great relief to the disciples, who had left everything and were completely without resources. After Jesus’ death they would be alone in a hostile world, yet He assured them they did not need to worry. The gap between Him and them would be closed instantly whenever they prayed. Even though He would be absent, they would have access to all His supplies.
That is not carte blanche for every whim of the flesh. There’s a qualifying statement repeated twice for emphasis. He doesn’t say, “I’ll give you absolutely anything you ask for,” but “I’ll do what you ask in My name.” The name of Jesus stands for all that He is. Throughout Scripture, God’s names are the same as His attributes. When Isaiah prophesied that Messiah would be called “Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (9:6), he was not giving Him actual names, but rather an overview of Messiah’s character. “I AM WHO I AM,” the name revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14, is as much an affirmation of God’s eternal nature as it is a name by which He is to be called.
Therefore, praying in the name of Jesus is more than merely mentioning His name at the end of your prayers. If you truly pray in Jesus’ name, you can pray only for that which is consistent with His perfect character, and for that which will bring glory to Him. It implies acknowledgment of all that He has done and a submission to His will.
What praying in Jesus’ name really means is that we should pray as if the Lord Himself were doing the asking. We approach the throne of the Father in full identification with the Son, seeking only what He would seek. When we pray with that perspective, we begin to pray for the things that really matter, and we eliminate selfish requests. If we pray that way, He assures us, “I will do it” (John 14:14). That is your guarantee that within His will you will never lack anything.
Pray with a Knowledge of Scripture. Jesus promises, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). There are two conditions to that promise. First, we must abide. The Greek word for “abide” is in the aorist tense, which indicates something that happened at one point in time and has continuing results. Here “abide” refers to salvation and indicates that the promise is only for real believers.
“My words” does not refer only to the individual words of Christ. The Lord has spoken through the entirety of Scripture; all of it is His message to us. Therefore, when He says, “If…My words abide in you,” He means we must have such high regard for all of Scripture that we let it abide in us, that we hide it in our hearts, and that we commit ourselves to knowing and obeying it. This is the condition for receiving Jesus’ promise to give us what we desire. When you are controlled by His Word, you are not going to ask anything against God’s will. Because you want what God wants, you are guaranteed answers to your prayers.
THE DESIRES OF YOUR HEART
As Paul expressed in 2 Corinthians 10, “[We are] casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (verse 5). You must rid your mind of everything that violates God’s truth and will. By cultivating an intimate love relationship with Christ, you will desire what He desires; then whatever you ask, you will receive. The psalmist said, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). When you delight completely in the Lord, His desires become your own. And they will never go unfulfilled.
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MacArthur, J. (2004). Welcome to the family : What to expect now that you’re a Christian (49). Nashville, Tenn.: Nelson Books.