Ask Whatever You Wish
When you are reading the Bible, do you ever ask: “God, did you really mean that?” Some things in Scripture seem too far-fetched to believe that God actually meant what He said. But, in so many of these cases, if we take a closer look at the verse, the surrounding verses, and the totality of the Bible, we understand better what God is actually saying. Let’s look at one of those passages.
John 15:7: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (NIV).
Jesus is the one speaking. Does He really mean “ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you”? “Whatever you wish”? That seems implausible. Can we treat God like a five year old treats his grandparents at Walmart? Gimme this. I want that. I want one of those. I want five of those.
When reading the Bible, we must look at the entire truth in the context that it was originally written. And, this context is easy to recognize what Jesus is actually saying. Because of our universe revolves around me, mentality, we read: “I can get anything I want. All I have to do is ask.” But, Jesus qualified this with a very important standard. He said: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you,” then you can ask and receive.
Jesus gave us two qualifiers for asking whatever we wish and receiving it. First, He said, “If you remain in me.” So our first instruction is to remain in Christ. Walk with the Lord. Abide in Him. Let His thoughts be our thoughts. Let His actions be our actions. Let Him lead and we follow. If this is occurring in our lives, our requests will be radically different. We will not be asking for self-serving things. We will be asking for God-honoring things.
The second qualifier that Jesus gave us in order to receive whatever we ask for is if “my words remain in you.” So, not only must we remain in Jesus, His words must also remain in us. That means that our requests and wishes will line up with what the Bible says.
Words like: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23 NIV). If we are asking whatever we wish in light of Jesus’ words of denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Him, our wish list will be dramatically different. It will not be what can I gain, but what can I lose so that others can gain for the advancement of the kingdom of God.
We will get whatever we ask anytime we are remaining in Jesus and His words are remaining in us because we will be asking in perfect harmony with God’s will. And God’s will is what will be done. We ask what God wants to do, and He does it.