A Confident Asker

“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him,” 1 John 5:14.  For instance… “If anyone sees he brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life,” 1 John 5:16.  We know that we have what we ask for when it it something that God wants as well.  Simple.

Asking is not about getting our way… .it’s about getting His way.  We ask God to fulfill the very desires of His heart towards us and towards others.  Very simply, this is not about demanding and taking but about asking and waiting.  We have confidence in our asking, seeking and knocking when we are certain that our request is within the moral and provisional care of God.  He wants it, so we ask for it.  

You cannot confidently ask when you know it is not yours to ask for.  Boundaries are not ours to move as we please.  Nevertheless, as David has testified, the boundaries that God has placed around our lives are spacious and good.  “The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance,” Psalm 16:6.  As we come to know His moral and provisional will in our lives and as we submit to the boundaries of His care, we can request enlargement of those boundaries.  God wants to expand our territory... .to move us out in all directions so we may testify of His goodness.  When we know where He is going, how He is expanding and changing the territory, we can move boundaries with Him according to His will.  

“Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out, do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes.  For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities,” Isaiah 54:2-3.

The command is to “stretch out”, “lengthen”, “spread abroad”.  When we know that God is commanding a change in boundaries, we can command with Him.  We are asking “according to his will”, and there is no reason to hold back.  “You will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you,” Matthew 17:20.