Acts 18:23-28,
Psalm 47:2-3.8-9.1,
John 16:23b-28 Full Readings
Whatever you ask in my name you shall get
The farewell speech of Jesus is drawing to an end. Today he tells his disciples that: "...anything you ask for from my Father he will grant in my name...so that your joy will be complete" Of course when Jesus was with them, they would lack nothing. They had everything they needed but since Jesus is going to the Father they had to start asking in the form of prayer. Their relationship was no longer physical but spiritual and the only way to communicate spiritually is through prayer.
The words of Jesus also speak to us today. Whatever we shall ask from God in Jesus' name we shall receive. I know there are many questions about this statement. If Jesus promised that whatever we ask in his name we shall receive, how comes there are many unanswered prayers? Firstly, we have to understand that God's ways are not our ways. God never gives what we don't need. We might have asked what really will not enhance our relationship with God and neighbor and so He will give what we need and according to His goodness.
This means we are obedient to the will of God. Prayers of asking and of intercession simply are not always answered – or at least not obviously. Here we must turn to the Letter to the Hebrews 6.7, when Jesus’ prayer with tears to the one who had power to save him from death won a hearing by his reverence, and he learnt obedience through his sufferings. This allusion to the agony of Jesus before his sufferings must be the model of all intercessory prayer: we submit ourselves in prayer to the one who has power to save us, and await the answer in obedience, confident that the Father will answer our prayer in the way that the eternal love knows to be best for us, beyond our restricted and faulty human vision. God goes beyond our mere desires and aspirations and gives us what will bring us closer to Him in obedience.
Secondly, there is always a prerequisite for getting what we ask from God. We need to have an unwavering faith in God in order to get what we ask for. Our trust must be in Him and He will surely give us what we need. With the wavering faith, we will not get what we need (James 1:6-7). Brethren we therefore have to stand in firm faith for God to shower us with gifts.
Thirdly, we can speak of what is the motive of our asking. Is what we are asking from God for the greater Glory of His name? Is it necessary for our own personality and others or just for pleasure or pride. St James teaches us: "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."
(James 4:3). If we don't get what we ask let us first examine our motives behind what we are asking for.
Despite all these possibilities, God has answered many of our prayers and we really have to thank Him. Let us not take anything for granted even reaching at this moment of our life is by God's grace, we have to thank God. By the fact we were born and we still breath, let us thank God. Remember being born is not our right but out of mercy of God, however, dying is a must. Let us therefore brethren not take anything for granted, God is always answering our prayers either in the way we ask or in a way according to His will.
Reflect today on how your prayers are being answered by God. Pray for the Holy Spirit to always make you understand the ways in which God answers your prayers and to always submit to His holy will. Let us always ask for Mother Mary and other saints to pray for us.
Let us pray
My God, I know you are always answering my prayers. May this hope keep me until I reach there in Heaven to be with you and to ask no more. Amen
Blessed Easter Season. Don't forget to pray Novena to the Holy Spirit.
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