"And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do
Chapter III. Obeying and Praying
CHAPTER III
OBEYING AND PRAYING
1. One of the most significant verses in the Bible on prayer is 1 John 3:22. John says, "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight."
What an astounding statement! John says in so many words, that everything he asked for he got. How many of us can say this: "Whatsoever I ask I receive"? But John explains why this was so, "Because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." In other words, the one who expects God to do as he asks Him, must on his part DO WHATEVER GOD BIDS HIM. If we give a listening ear to all God's commands to us, He will give a listening ear to all our petitions to Him. If, on the other hand, we turn a deaf ear to His precepts, He will be likely to turn a deaf ear to our prayers. Here we find the secret of much unanswered prayer. We are not listening to God's Word, and therefore He is not listening to our petitions.
I was once speaking to a woman who had been a professed Christian, but had given it all up. I asked her why she was not a Christian still. She replied, because she did not believe the Bible. I asked her why she did not believe the Bible.
"Because I have tried its promises and found them untrue." "Which promises?" "The promises about prayer." "Which promises about prayer?" "Does it not say in the Bible, 'Whatsoever ye ask believing ye shall receive'?" "It says something nearly like that." "Well, I asked fully expecting to get and did not receive, so the promise failed." "Was the promise made to you?" "Why, certainly, it is made to all Christians, is it not?" "No, God carefully defines who the 'ye's' are, whose believing prayers He agrees to answer."
I then turned her to 1 John 3:22, and read the description of those whose prayers had power with God.
"Now," I said, "were you keeping His commandments and doing those things which are pleasing in His sight?"
She frankly confessed that she was not, and soon came to see that the real difficulty was not with God's promises, but with herself. That is the difficulty with many an unanswered prayer to-day: the one who offers it is not obedient.