“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
“If my people who are called by my name…” You will no doubt recognise the opening words of this popular Bible verse. The verse presents a promise that has become quite popular among church people. It may be a favourite verse for you who hear me in this hour. In the title for this message, I refer to this verse as a “grievously abused verse.” Without doubt, you who hear this message or read it will ask, “How can this be?” Raising the question seems no doubt presumptuous. Nevertheless, it is imperative that I raise the question of whether we tend to abuse this promise given by the Living God. And answering this question will be the focus of the message today.
To answer this question, I suggest that we look at the verse itself to discern the assumptions that lie behind God making the statement that is recorded. Then, we will need to weigh our present relationship with the Lord GOD. At last, we will be challenged to adjust our prayer life to the realities of our situation.
At the outset of the message I am compelled to make a statement concerning my confidence and to lay to rest doubts that some may harbour because I do raise the question. I believe in prayer. I take very seriously the admonition delivered by the Apostle when he admonished us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” [PHILIPPIANS 4:6]. That admonition is but an expansion of his earlier injunction delivered to the saints of Living God, “Pray without ceasing” [1 THESSALONIANS 5:17].
I also believe that what God has promised is for our good and for His glory. Therefore, the people of God should hold to the promises God has given. We who follow the Risen Lord of Glory are to be a people known for prayer. Outsiders, individuals who do not have the faith, should recognise that we are dependent upon God for all that we do. The lost of this world should be confident that when we say we will pray that we will do so; and they should be equally confident that when we pray things happen because what we ask is heard in the sacred precincts of Heaven!
ASSUMPTIONS BEHIND THE VERSE — “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” [2 CHRONICLES 7:14].
Solomon, the son of David, King of Israel, had ascended to the throne. It had been a last-minute act by David before his death that had ensured Solomon would be crowned. David had gathered materials to build the Temple, and Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem. When the Temple was completed, the Ark was brought to the Temple and Solomon conducted the dedication of the Temple.
Before the Altar of the LORD and in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, Solomon prayed. And this is the prayer he offered. “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart, who have kept with your servant David my father what you declared to him. You spoke with your mouth, and with your hand have fulfilled it this day. Now therefore, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you have promised him, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.’ Now therefore, O LORD, God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you have spoken to your servant David.
“But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built! Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O LORD my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you, that your eyes may be open day and night toward this house, the place where you have promised to set your name, that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place. And listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen from heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.
“If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and comes and swears his oath before your altar in this house, then hear from heaven and act and judge your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head, and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.
“If your people Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against you, and they turn again and acknowledge your name and pray and plead with you in this house, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them again to the land that you gave to them and to their fathers.
“When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk, and grant rain upon your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.
“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar, if their enemies besiege them in the land at their gates, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own sorrow and stretching out his hands toward this house, then hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways, for you, you only, know the hearts of the children of mankind, that they may fear you and walk in your ways all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our fathers.
“Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for the sake of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when he comes and prays toward this house, hear from heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.
“If your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to you toward this city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause.
“If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to a land far or near, yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly,’ if they repent with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity to which they were carried captive, and pray toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, then hear from heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their pleas, and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you. Now, O my God, let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place.
“And now arise, O LORD God, and go to your resting place,
you and the ark of your might.
Let your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation,
and let your saints rejoice in your goodness.
O LORD God, do not turn away the face of your anointed one!
Remember your steadfast love for David your servant.”
[2 CHRONICLES 6:14-42]
It is immediately apparent that Solomon is offering this prayer before the LORD in his capacity as the sovereign of a theocracy, the theocracy of the LORD God of Israel. Israel was, and is, the Chosen People of God; Israel was not a democratic nation as would be the case we recognise for western nations today. It is essential to keep in view the fact that Solomon made some specific requests for the nation, and it was those requests that the LORD specifically addressed in the verse before us today.
He asks the LORD to judge between individuals who stand in opposition to one another, when they have taken an oath before the LORD. Under such circumstances, Solomon’s request is that God will hold the guilty party accountable for their sin while vindicating the righteous. He is pleading for God to be the judge of His people.
He pleads with God to forgive His people when they are defeated in battle because God has delivered them into the hand of their enemy. God’s forgiveness is contingent upon repentance of the arrogance of the people and their pleading with God to bring them again into their land. Solomon is asking God to forgive His people when they repent.
He pleads with God to forgive the people when drought or famine comes upon the land because the nation has turned from the LORD. When these disasters, sent as punishment, drives them to repentance for the wickedness of their lives, the plea is that God will forgive them.
He asks the LORD to hear the prayer of foreigners when they pray to the Lord GOD, looking toward the Temple in which God is honoured. Solomon is asking the LORD to be gracious to those who are ignorant though they yet seek to honour God.
When the nation goes to war and they seek the LORD’s intervention to deliver them from their enemies, Solomon asks God to maintain their cause.
At last, the king asks God to forgive His people when they repent of their sin, forgiving them of the wickedness they have done.
There are several essential matters that we must recognise when reviewing Solomon’s prayer. Throughout, the king is presenting his prayer on behalf of the nation God has established. Throughout, he repeatedly seeks God’s forgiveness when God’s people turn from their own presumptuous, self-willed sin to humble themselves before the LORD. And throughout, he is emphasising prayer offered to the LORD as the people plead as part of the people whom God chose praying toward the Temple.
Solomon is making a series of requests that reflect the promises God made through Moses when the Law was received by the nation. You will no doubt recall that the LORD, speaking through Moses, warned the people of the consequences of sin. Moses warned of the high costs of national sin, and the people were to openly agree by saying “Amen” as each curse was pronounced.
Here is the presentation as described in the Book of Deuteronomy. “When you have crossed over the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. And these shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. And the Levites shall declare to all the men of Israel in a loud voice:
“‘Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the LORD, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who moves his neighbor’s landmark.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind man on the road.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his father’s wife, because he has uncovered his father’s nakedness.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who lies with any kind of animal.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his mother-in-law.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who strikes down his neighbor in secret.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen’ [DEUTERONOMY 27:11-26].
The list is daunting, and it is surely inclusive of a dark catalogue of sin. However, for the purpose of our study today, it is important to see the statement of blessings that were promised if the people obeyed the LORD. Those blessings are listed in the chapter that follows. In DEUTERONOMY 28:1-14, we witness the LORD’s promise of blessings when the people obey Him.
“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
“The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The LORD will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. The LORD will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. And the LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. The LORD will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.”
I acknowledge that I have invested considerable time to establish what must appear to be mundane information, that the prayer Solomon offered was addressed to the LORD under the Mosaic Law. Don’t assume that I am suggesting that anything written in the Old Covenant is null and void in this day; rather, I am cautioning us that we cannot neglect recognising that a transition has been made at the Cross of Christ. It is not that the request Solomon made was invalid or that the Divine answer given in response to his request has no meaning in this present era. However, it is important to recognise that the basis for our own prayers differs from the basis for the prayers that were offered before the sacrifice of the Son of God.
Paul clarifies this vital issue as he pleads with the Christians in Galatia. “Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’” [GALATIANS 3:2-6]?
These questions frame the distinction between the basis for Solomon’s prayer and the prayer we might present before the Lord in this present hour. Is God obligated to do anything in response to prayer because we have obeyed the Law He had given? Or does God deal with us on the basis of grace?
The Apostle continues instructing the Galatians, and thus instructing us, writing, “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
“For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’ Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ But the law is not of faith, rather ‘The one who does them shall live by them.’ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith” [GALATIANS 3:7-14].
The issue that is presented points to the difference between law and grace, between obedience to the Law of Moses and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The LORD appeared to Solomon after he had dedicated the Temple. At that time, the LORD answered Solomon. It will be instructive to review the entire statement God delivered that night rather than isolating one statement as though that was all the God said. Here is the answer the LORD gave in response to the king’s pleas.
The Lord answered Solomon, saying first that He accepted the house that Solomon had built, that is, the Temple. God would dwell in the Temple. Then the Lord responded to the specific requests that Solomon had made of Him. The LORD said, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. And as for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to rule Israel.’
“But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And at this house, which was exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’ Then they will say, LORD ‘Because they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore he has brought all this disaster on them’” [2 CHRONICLES 7:12-22].
The LORD’s response revolves around His presence within the Most Holy Place in the Temple Solomon built. His pledge to bless and to forgive was provisional, it was contingent upon the obedience of the people. What God pledged was made emphatic by the warnings that followed. Disobedience would lead to removal from the land with the concomitant destruction of the Temple. The absence of the Temple together with the fact that the people would be sent away from the land would serve to notify all who heard of this to know that the people had been disobedient. God would be glorified in the knowledge that He had brought the disaster upon the land because of their disobedience. But that is not how God deals with us in this age!
THE NEW REALITY OF OUR CONDITION — “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” [2 CHRONICLES 7:14]. God dwelt in the Temple at Jerusalem. It was not necessary for Him to have a place to dwell; His presence was a concession to bless the nation of Israel.
Do you recall the confession Solomon made as he prayed? The king confessed, “Will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built” [2 CHRONICLES 6:18]! With these words, the king was but anticipating the words of the LORD penned later by Isaiah: “Thus says the LORD:
‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house that you would build for me,
and what is the place of my rest?’”
[ISAIAH 66:1]
This raises the question for Christians living in this day late in the Age of Grace: “Will God indeed dwell with man on earth?” And the answer to that question is a definite “Yes!” To the assembly of the Corinthians, the Apostle has written, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” [1 CORINTHIANS 3:16-17]. Make a notation in your Bible that the pronoun in these verses is plural. Paul is speaking of the congregation when he writes these words. The local congregation is God’s Temple. For this reason, it is a serious matter for anyone to seek to destroy the local church. All such attempts are an invitation for God to strike back, destroying the destroyer.
Nor is this the only time the Lord identifies the congregation as the Temple of God. Listen to what the Apostle has written in a later missive to this same congregation. “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.”
[2 CORINTHIANS 6:14-16]
I understand that the verse is often applied to individuals in the fields of business when counselling against marriage to an unbeliever, but the immediate application is obviously warning against mixing the faithful with outsiders in the church. The passage Paul cites in support of this teaching makes it obvious that he is speaking of the congregation of the Lord as the dwelling place of God.
It is essential to note one other passage of the Word that makes the same claim for the faithful. In the Ephesian encyclical, we witness Paul writing, “Remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called ‘the uncircumcision’ by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” [EPHESIANS 2:11-22].
There is no question but that the local congregation is the Temple of God. And when that local assembly departs from the Faith, the Spirit of God will no longer dwell there. He will depart when the people no longer hold to the Faith of Christ the Lord. I must not rush away from this so quickly that I fail to acknowledge that your body, if you are a twice born child of God through faith in the Risen Son of God, is now a Temple of the Spirit of Christ. Listen as Paul makes the case for the Church of God at Corinth, writing, “‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything. ‘Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food’—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, ‘The two will become one flesh.’ But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” [1 CORINTHIANS 6:12-20]. We know that the Spirit of Christ now dwells in each of us who have received Him as Master!
The situation for the individual becomes the condition for the local congregation. In turn, what is evident for the local congregation is the reality of the greater Body of Christ. But we have a problem! None of us are sinless! How can we meet the criterion of holiness? Paul wrestled with this precise problem when he wrote, “We know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death” [ROMANS 7:14-24]?
Who indeed? And immediately, the Apostle gives the only answer that can be given, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” [ROMANS 7:25].
Immediately following this life-changing confession, Paul turns to explore this stunning truth in greater detail as he writes, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” [ROMANS 8:1-11].
We are the Temple of God, and we who are redeemed are priests serving God. Peter reveals, “As you come to [the Lord], a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” [1 PETER 2:4-5].
Again, the Apostle to the Jews addresses who we are, testifying, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” [1 PETER 2:9].
THE BASIS FOR PRAYER IN THIS AGE — “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” [2 CHRONICLES 7:14]. What has all this to do with the answer to prayer Solomon received? Solomon prayed for Israel based on obedience to God’s Law given through the Great Lawgiver. We seek God’s answers based upon the completed work of Christ. We cannot claim any merit or consideration from our own labours.
We seize the promise of God given when the Son of God teaches us, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it” [JOHN 14:13-14].
To make the case for grace even stronger, the Master again promised, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you” [JOHN 15:16].
Promising once would have been sufficient, and twice only strengthens the promise our Lord has given; but what shall we say when He promises yet again, “In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” [JOHN 16:23-24].
As children of the Heavenly Father, we are invited to ask for what we will. We ask, not on the basis of what we do or how we live, we ask on the basis of the completed work of Christ our Saviour. For we stand complete in Him and His Spirit lives in us. We ask depending on His completed work. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
