Confident Prayers

Today’s Scripture: 1 John 5:13-21

Key Verses: 1 John 5:14-15

And we are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases Him… [and] we also know that He will give us what we ask for.

Read the Key Verse for today and you can see that the key to a confident prayer is asking for something that pleases God.

When we know that something pleases God, we can ask for it and have confidence that God will grant it to us. This begs the question: how can you know what I you are asking for pleases God?

You can find the answer by reading the Bible. The Bible shows what pleases God. Let’s look at some things that we can pray about with confidence.

We can pray for God to work in the lives of people who have yet to accept Jesus. God’s will is that no one would “perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9). Everyone must make the decision to follow Jesus using their own free will. God does not force anyone to repent.

But we can believe that God answers our prayers by creating circumstances or sending people into the lives of those we pray for to encourage them to seek God. I often pray that God will remove the scales from their spiritual eyes so they can see how much God loves them.

We can pray for God to help us to do good things and to be generous to people around us. Hebrews 13:16 tell us: “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God”.

God can answer this prayer by putting a desire in our hearts for a particular need or person to help so that we can carry out God’s purposes in this world. Philippians 2:13 says this clearly: “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him”.

We can pray for God when we need peace. Philippians 4:7 reminds us: “His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus”.

Before this challenge, Philippians 4:6 tells us not to be worried about anything. We should pray about everything that bothers us. After we pray, we are to thank God for all He has done and will do about the things we pray about. The Apostle Paul is saying that if we pray rather than worry, then we will have God’s peace in all things!

What about praying for something that we cannot find in the Bible, and we are not sure pleases God? We can simply add to our prayer “may Your will be done”.

The evil one keeps tempting us to worry but resist those thoughts. As worry creeps into our minds, quickly whisper prayers and believe that God is listening.

Father, help me to resist the devil by claiming your peace in all the negative things that are happening around me. I ask this in Jesus’s Name, amen.