John 15:15
“If my word remains in you, and you remain in me; ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you.”
As a youth, I loved this verse because it motivated me to pray for things like money, a girlfriend, a victory in football. Funny thing happened to me this morning. I woke up with heavy burdens on my shoulders, frustrated and disappointed by a myriad of things and people. As I prayed and laid out the frustrations on my heart to God, and began to pray for specific people and for certain situations, the knot began to loosen. It was not because God changed them—or did what I wanted Him to do—but because he changed me.
I asked Jesus to let me see the circumstances through His eyes, how He saw them. Rather than worrying about how they had slighted or wronged me, I saw them (and myself) as God see’s us. Imperfect.
If God’s word remains in us. At the beginning of John we are told that Jesus is the WORD, and so John is talking about that connection between us and Jesus. If Jesus—the story of God’s forgiveness remains in us, then our hearts become transformed and we start to ask for things not for our own selfishness but for His glory.
Are your frustrated by someone or a situation? Are you harboring anger, bitterness or resentment towards someone? Towards yourself? Towards God? Are you wanting God to fix others, and not yourself? How might the fact that Jesus’ death on the cross forgave our sins, free us to forgive other people?
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