“Ask Whatsoever Ye Will.”
THERE is a plan by which we may have anything we ask from the Lord. That plan is clearly set forth in the following words of the Saviour: “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” John 15:7. We may ask whatsoever we will, “and it shall be done” unto us. This is the direct promise and decree of the Lord Himself. But we must not fail to observe the conditions. “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you,” says the Master, then “ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” The abiding of the individual in Christ and the abiding of the words of Christ in the individual states the plan or the conditions upon which the Lord bestows the great gift of unqualified answer to prayer. God answers right prayers. Any one can see that it would be ruinous for Him to answer wrong prayers. It is God’s good pleasure to answer us when we ask for things that are right. He who gave the father and the mother all the instincts of pleasure that come in giving good gifts to our children has those joys of giving to His children in an infinite degree Himself. But our heavenly Father is not indulgent with wrong-doing. He knows perfectly what wrong-doing will result in, and so He will not grant us wrong things, even tho we urge the request upon Him ever so strongly. Children are apt to tease their parents for things that they want, and frequently the parents will allow their judgment to be overruled by the importunity of the child, and things are granted that are not for the best, yes, things are allowed that are positively wrong and hurtful. But the Lord is willing only to bestow that which is good. He wants us to have what is right, and only that, and the right is always the best. Then we may ask whatsoever we will and receive it, provided we ask for right things. And, to know how to ask for right things, it is necessary for us to abide in Christ, and to have His words abide in us. It is a plain, simple plan, and there is no real pleasure in following any other. But there are infinite pleasures in following God’s way that pass beyond the powers of description.