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"And if we know that He hears us..."

Text: 1 John 5:15

BEING ASSURED

The Apostle John understood the lack of confidence his readers had when it came to the matter of God hearing and answering prayers. He sought to give them a sense of assurance that God does indeed hear and answer prayers!

“And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask,
we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”
1 John 5:15

1. “And if we know that He hears us”

a) The grammatical construction of the sentence suggests a number of things:-

i) The petitioner has doubts.

ii) He may present his petitions to God but he is not assured.

b) John sought to help his readers to deal with the problem of their doubts.

i) Doubts will cause uncertainty.

ii) Uncertainty will lead to unbelief.

iii) Such prayer efforts are weak and ineffective.

2. The challenge is to have a correct understanding of how God hears and answers prayer.

a) We have to plead the name of the Lord Jesus as the Son of God.

b) We have to pray as children of God.

c) We must believe that God is Father and He will listen to the prayers of His children.

d) This is an important exercise of our faith in God.

i) We must believe that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

ii) We must exercise faith when we look up to God in prayer.

e) We need to submit all our petitions to the will of God.

i) Faith is only one part.

ii) Submission to the will of God is another component part.

3. “We know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him”

a) This is a wonderful assurance that we can have.

b) However this sense of assurance cannot be ours till we have fulfilled the above.

c) The challenge is to examine our faith-relationship with God.

d) And also to deepen our understanding and practice of prayer.