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Praying with Confidence · In the Stillness Podcast

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  Hey you guys, it's friendly. Welcome back to another episode
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  on In the Stillness. Thanks for joining me on this
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  Tuesday. I hope you all had a wonderful
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  start to your week yesterday and I am just super excited for the
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  content of today's episode. I think that there are so many
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  great takeaways. The Lord was definitely teaching
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  me things in this quiet time, so I'm very hopeful that y'all can
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  learn some things as well. I believe that there are so many
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  Christians walking around who know about God, but they don't
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  actually live with confidence in Him.
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  It is so easy to hear verses in the Bible, to know church
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  language, what we're supposed to say, how we're supposed to act.
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  But deep down, I think a lot of people still approach the Lord
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  distant, hesitant, unsure, and wondering if he really does hear
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  you, if he really does want us close, and if we're somehow
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  still on the outside trying to earn access.
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  But first, John 5, as we will read shortly, completely just
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  breaks this mindset down. John says he wrote these things
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  so that believers would know. So not a maybe not if I perform
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  enough, but no. And so I just think a lot of
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  Christians are living far below the access Jesus already paid
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  for. And I want to debunk that.
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  I want to go through it and address it.
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  So let's go ahead and read first John chapter 5, verses 13 to 15.
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  I've written this letter to you who believe in the name of the
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  Son of God, so that you will be assured and know without a doubt
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  that you have eternal life. Since we have this confidence,
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  we can also have great boldness before Him, For if we ask
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  anything agreeable to His will, He will hear us.
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  And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we also know
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  that we have obtained the requests we ask of Him.
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  OK, so clearly John is writing to Christians.
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  He is reminding them what they already have access to in Christ
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  right now. And in yesterday's podcast, we
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  talked a lot about this, that eternal life is not just someday
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  or one day in heaven. It begins when you proclaim
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  Christ as Lord of your life, when you profess your faith
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  right now. And one thing that I kept
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  thinking about during my quiet time today is how possible it is
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  to be a Christian in name only, but to not fully take on that
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  identity. To know things mentally but not
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  truly grasp them in your heart. There is a difference between
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  hearing the truth but then actually receiving revelation
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  from God. For example, you can know that
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  parenting is hard through the way that people talk about it.
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  You can hear that childbirth is painful.
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  But until you experience something personally, you're not
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  going to fully understand the weight of it or appreciate what
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  they are saying. And I think a lot of believers
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  can do the same thing spiritually.
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  We can say, yeah, God loves me, Jesus died for me, I'm saved by
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  grace, but not understand the significance behind those words.
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  And they can still live anxious, distant, spiritually unsure or
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  wavering. In Ecclesiastes 8, I was
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  actually going through this passage with a friend early this
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  morning at a coffee shop, and it talks about applying our minds
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  to wisdom. And we were just talking about
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  how wisdom is something that we ask God for.
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  It says in James to ask God for more wisdom because he will
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  generously, freely give it to us.
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  But we have to be intentional too.
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  Wisdom is knowledge applied in the practical, and so we can't
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  just passively receive it and then expect it to bear fruit in
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  our lives. And what really stood out to me
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  is our certainty is based on God's promise.
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  It is not based on our feelings. Faith is not anchored in
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  emotion. Faith is anchored in fact.
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  Let me repeat that. Faith is anchored in fact.
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  Hebrews 11 verse one says that faith is assurance about what we
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  hope for and confidence about what we do not see.
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  And the father of our faith, Abraham, way back in the
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  beginning of the Bible, he believed God, therefore
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  righteousness was entrusted to him.
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  He received by belief, by faith, and so as his descendants, we do
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  too. So many believers think that
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  confidence with God comes from feeling close to him.
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  But y'all, the blood of Jesus brought you close, whether you
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  emotionally feel it today or not.
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  Suddenly your relationship with God is no longer built on
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  emotional instability. It's built on covenant.
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  It's built on what Jesus already accomplished, and because of
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  that, we've actually been given the ability to approach God with
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  confidence. Guys, it is the same kind of
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  confidence that Jesus modeled. I'm going to talk more about
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  that confidence that Jesus modeled in the Garden of
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  Gethsemane in a second. But I also just want to say I
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  think a lot of people are constantly stressed trying to
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  figure out what God's will is like.
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  It is some impossible mystery, but Jesus says in John 10 verse
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  27, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.
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  Sheep know the shepherd's voice and God never intended for His
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  children to live disconnected from him in a guessing game of
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  what He's thinking or what His will is.
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  And something that I was thinking about was intimacy
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  influences. Think about the closer that you
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  get to know someone, the closer that you grow, the more that you
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  begin reflecting them or you're influenced by their behavior.
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  You start caring about what they care about.
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  You start understanding their heart.
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  You begin recognizing what matters to them without needing
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  every single explanation spelled out.
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  And that's exactly what can happen with God.
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  The more time that you spend with Him, whether that be
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  through prayer, through reading scripture, learning and
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  practicing obedience and communing with the Father, the
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  more that your desires align with His desires.
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  And eventually you realize that God does not withhold good from
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  you. Psalm 8411 says no good thing
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  does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
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  He is protecting you from settling for less than His best.
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  God sees the full picture. He sees what we cannot see.
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  He understands perfect timing. He knows the people that you
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  need in your life. He is looking to the eternal
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  impact. He is far more focused on your
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  internal heart then the physical and the immediate relief that
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  you want right now. I think one of the clearest
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  pictures of this tension between human desire and trust in God's
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  will is seen through Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
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  As I was touching on earlier, Matthew 26 verse 39 says My
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  Father, this is Jesus praying. If it be possible, let this cup
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  pass for me yet. Not as I will, but as you will.
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  Jesus was not pretending that the cross would be easy.
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  He brought his anguish, his emotions, very honestly before
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  the Father. But here's the thing, His
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  honesty did not overrule his trust.
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  So I think that is an invitation of prayer for us too.
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  Faith is not pretending that we don't have desires.
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  It's not diminishing fear or pain.
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  It's bringing them transparently before God and still trusting
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  His wisdom above our own, trusting the Lord with all of
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  our heart and not leaning on our own understanding, but
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  submitting to His understanding. Jesus did not hide his desire
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  for another way. He surrendered it.
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  And I think what changes everything is realizing that the
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  no that Jesus received in the moment in Gethsemane, it became
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  humanity's eternal yes to salvation.
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  It became the way that we can be reconciled with God.
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  And I believe that's why John says we pray according to God's
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  will and he hears us. Do we realize how powerful that
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  is truly, that the Creator of heaven and the creator of earth
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  hears you, not just barely listens to you, but hears you.
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  And if he hears us, John says we can have confidence.
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  So I just want this to be our challenge to not just pray
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  small, to stop praying tiny prayers out of fear, but to pray
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  big, pray specifically, pray boldly.
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  God invites His children to ask. This is not because we are
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  entitled, but this is because you are His child.
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  He cares. Ephesians 3 verse 12 says in him
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  and through faith in him that is Jesus, we may approach God with
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  freedom and confidence. That confidence was purchased by
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  Jesus. We were bought with a price.
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  Jesus did not endure the cross rejection, separation from his
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  Father at the time for sin so that his children would spend
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  their lives just approaching God timidly and afraid.
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  Jesus made a way for you to come boldly, rooted in humility.
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  Yes, we are not to be prideful or arrogant, but to come before
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  Him with a deep confidence as a fully loved child of God.
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  So I just want to ask you all these three questions before I
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  close out. Am I building my faith more on
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  feelings or on God's promises? What areas of my life am I still
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  trying to control instead of trusting God's will?
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  And if I truly believed that God hears me every request I bring
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  before him, how would it change the way that I pray?
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  So let's go ahead and pray and come before the Lord with
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  freedom, boldness, and confidence.
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  Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for access to you.
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  Thank you Jesus, for making a way and giving us this access to
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  the Father. I pray that our confidence would
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  not be based on a striving for perfection, that we would know
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  that it is not our emotions or our feelings that bring us close
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  to you, God. It is on your finished work.
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  Jesus, would you teach us to know You deeply, not just
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  intellectually but intimately in relationship?
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  I pray that we would recognize your voice.
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  I pray that we would trust your timing.
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  May we surrender to your will above our own.
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  And would you align our hearts with Your will?
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  I pray that we would have an increased boldness and prayer
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  knowing that you hear us, that you care and you delight to give
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  us your best Father. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
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  OK guys, that's today's podcast. That was a lot, and I feel like
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  I could talk about this for a lot longer than I did, but I am
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  praying that the Lord will just continue revealing things to
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  you, encouraging you, uplifting your spirit, and that you would
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  learn to approach the Lord with humility, yes, but with such
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  confidence that He does truly, truly care and know exactly what
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  you need. I will see y'all on the next
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  podcast episode.