Jottings

by John Miller | Category: Jottings | Mar 1968

We come now to precious promises which the Lord made to His disciples. "And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask (Me) anything in My name, that will I do." In Psalm 77.7-9, Asaph the writer asks six questions, the answer to each one of which is, No! The fourth question is, "Doth His promise fail for evermore?" What would be the use of depending on the Lord's promise in John 14.13,14, if it was customary for the Lord to fail in the promises that He has made? What we need to attend to is the conditions attached to any of His promises, it is our responsibility to see that we do not fail in fulfilling the conditions. We have conditions in 1 John 5.14, in connexion with asking from God in our petitions. "And this is the boldness which we have toward Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us."

Consider the case of Paul and the thorn in the flesh, that messenger of Satan to buffet him. Three times Paul prayed that it might depart from him, but the Lord's answer was, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for My power is made perfect in weakness". And his complete resignation to the Lord's will was such that he said, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me" (2 Corinthians 12.7-9). What a help Paul's resignation to the Lord's will has been to many suffering servants of Christ! Christ's strength is not made perfect in strong men, strong in themselves, but in the weak and dependent who lean upon the arm of the Lord's strength. Every prayer that God hears He will answer, either to give what is asked, or to withhold it, for it is better sometimes that He should. withhold for high spiritual reasons. This latter was true in Paul's case. But John says, "If we know that He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of Him." One of the important things in prayer is, "If we ask anything according to His will He heareth us". This calls for much. exercise on our part to get to know what the will of God is in matters which we ask for in prayer.

It is said of Israel in the wilderness:

"They soon forgat His works;

They waited not for His counsel:

They lusted exceedingly. in the wilderness,

And tempted God in the desert.

And He gave them their request.

And sent leanness into their soul" (Psalm l06,13-l5).

This is a state much to be feared. We should seek to know the will of God before we ask.

Returning to the two verse~ with which we started in John 14.13,14, the one and only condition the Lord laid emphasis upon was to ask in His name, I judge, from His Father. I am of the opinion that "Me" in verse 14 in the R.V. should be omitted. I say this not because of any scholarship on my part, but because the Lord is the Way to the Father (verse 6), and Paul sets out the matter quite clearly in Ephesians 2.18: "for through Him (Christ Jesus) we both (Jew and Gentile) have our access in one Spirit (the Holy Spirit) unto the Father". The R.V. marginal reading says, "Many ancient authorities omit 'Me'." The A.V. omits "Me". I take it, that in asking in the Lord's name, it is not as though we were appending His name as adding some measure of quality to our asking, but we are, so far as our understanding goes, asking according to the will of the Person whose name we use, and this blessed Person, even the Son of God, will do according to our asking "that the Father may be glorified in the Son". This statement is emphasized in verse 14, "If ye shall ask any thing in My name, that will I do". What an encouragement there is in the Lord's words to be praying men and women. The words of John the Baptist are also words of great importance, "A man can receive nothing, except it have been given him from heaven" (John 3.27). May we speak up to God, as He speaks down to us (through His word).

John Miller | Mar 1968
Jottings