1 John 5:14 “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”
This verse and the very next (5:15, “… we know we have the requests that we have asked of him”) are challenging to truly understand and apply when the evidence of many prayers is that God simply does not give me everything I request even when I pray according to his will. I know God hears my prayers. But 5:15 is the befuddling part when I pray for something entirely in alignment with Scripture, e.g., a friend’s salvation, and it seems there is no action. But what I see is never the sum total of what God is actually doing. Prayer is certainly a mystery – yet I am not to merely contemplate it, I am to do it. In my life, I have seen many answered prayers, sometimes after years of persistence. I can be certain that God hears me and cares about the situation I’m bringing before him. He takes action according to his loving, just, true, and perfect will.
Father, please deepen my understanding of these verses. Thank you that I can learn and discern your will in the pages of Scripture, and that you care about me. You hear and respond to my prayers. I’ve lived long enough to see the blessing of when you’ve said NO to some things I’ve prayed for over many years, things that in the end were not your will. But in the case of the lost, I have seen miracles and will continue to pray for more miracles.