Day 8: Ask and It Will Be Done

Come Before Him in Worship: Come into the Father’s presence today with full assurance of His love. Take a moment to posture your heart to receive everything He desires to give you. Maybe this even looks like physically opening your hands as an act of faith and surrender. Praise Him for His faithfulness to always answer when we call on Him.

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 15:7

Devotion: We have just spent a week meditating on what it means to abide in Christ. In this verse, Jesus gives us an astounding prayer promise that comes as a result of this abiding: “ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.” Jesus also changes the thought slightly, from Him abiding in us (verse 5), to His words abiding in us. He is telling us that when we are connected to the vine and therefore, filled with the Spirit, and the words of Jesus abide in us, our prayers have great power.

What is meant by Jesus’ words abiding in us? It is more than just reading a scripture, and even agreeing with it, and then going about our day. It means being saturated with His words. Letting them transform us so that His desires, His understanding, His affections, His will becomes our own. David says in Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” That is to say, when you delight in Him, filling your heart with His words, He will implant His desires for you into your heart. And when you then ask Him for those “desires” in prayer, He is delighted to give them to you, for you have come to desire for you, what He also desires for you. Those are prayers that are “according to his will.”

1 John 5:14 says, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” His will is found in His word! Surrender to the vine, fill your heart with His word, and learn to pray according to His will. God promises to move!

Respond in Prayer: Lord, let me be saturated with Your words! You alone are the delight of my heart. Holy Spirit, thank You for revealing the Father’s heart when we ask! What areas of my heart are not aligned with Yours? How can I put aside my own desires so that You may be preeminent? I desire to walk in deeper friendship with You today. Stir up faith and desire in my heart to see Your will be done in my life, my family, my community, my workplace, and my ministry.