Boldness in prayer. ’Cause God’s listening.

1 John 5.13-15.

We Christians can get mighty bold when we approach God. As we should; we’re his kids, and our relationship with him is not a dysfunctional one, where every prayer request has some sort of quid-pro-quo God expects of us in return. True, it can definitely be dysfunctional on our part, where we’ll take God’s grace for granted. And some of us might think God does expect to make some deal with us before he’ll grant requests. But really, none of the dysfunction comes from God’s side. We’re encouraged to “come boldly unto the throne of grace,” He 4.16 and ask God for anything.

And one of the reasons John wrote his first letter was to remind his readers of this:

1 John 5.13-15 KWL

13I write you² these things

so you² might fully know

you² have life in the age to come,

granted to believers

in the name of God’s son.

14This is the boldness we have towards God:

When any of us ask according to his will,

he hears us.

15And when we know God hears us,

whatever we might ask him,

we fully know we have

the request which we asked of him.

The word παρρησία/parrisía in verse 14 is regularly translated “boldness,” and actually stems from the phrase πάς ῥῆσις/pas rhísis, “every [sort of] speech.” The sense is we Christians are able to say anything to God. Anything. Again, he’s our Father.

I used to shock people from time to time by talking to God as if I’m talking to anyone else; as if I’m talking to my dad. Which he is, after all; it shouldn’t shock people. Yet it does. Too many Christians are only comfortable with approaching God formally—with a built-in social distance between them and him, because he’s holy and they’re not. They don’t realize by adopting us as his kids, God’s made us holy too. We just have to act holy, for once—and stop mixing up solemnity or religiosity with holiness, ’cause that’s not what it means.

Anyway they think God should only be approached in a regal manner, with formal titles; he’s “thee,” not “you.” Lots of self-abasement, lots of special Christianese, lots of effort made to create a gap between us and our Father, and in so doing, undo everything Jesus came to earth to do. Jesus came to bring God near. But if you don’t understand what Jesus is all about, of course you’ll be happy to keep him far.

Our rapport with God.

Treating God formally, indicates we don’t have a healthy relationship with him.

In the Bronze Age, i.e. Old Testament times, kings declared themselves holy and demanded distance between themselves and their subjects. That’s because if people came near, they’d realize their kings weren’t holy at all. Up close you can see all their flaws, and realize they’re frauds. And that it’s super easy to assassinate them.

Naturally this practice became part of the kings’ religions. Don’t you dare approach the statue of Dagon; you’ll see it’s really easy to knock over. Don’t you dare approach the statue of Hadad; you’ll see it’s only a block of wood, so of course it’ll never talk back when you pray to it. Don’t you dare approach the priests of Amun-Ra; respect them like you would the king, and let them take your sacrifices and leave you poor.

Distance became part of holiness and respect. And some of it is kinda legitimate. Seeing unveiled God back then was like looking at the sun, only more damaging; it was basically fatal. God warned Moses if he saw God’s face it’d kill him. Ex 33.20 Moses could handle burning bushes, pillars of cloud and fire, and God’s back. But God’s face?—not till he died. Part of the reason God had to become human was so people can finally see his face unveiled. And part of the reason people didn’t recognize Jesus as God is because anybody can look upon Jesus; even the worst sinners.

God wants that distance eliminated, so God came near. God transformed his lowly subjects into daughters and sons. And in a healthy relationship, daughters and sons should still have respect for their parents, Ex 20.12 but at the same time they should have total freedom to tell their parents anything and everything. Same with us and God.

Because we have this rapport with God, like John said in verse 15, we know he hears us. We know he’s heard our requests. Anything we ask of him, he hears. John uses the Greek perfect tense—“we knew,” “we’ve known,” or as I put it, “we fully know”—to make this point abundantly clear: We know that we know he hears us. God doesn’t ignore his kids.

Now, if we want God to grant our requests, there’s an obvious catch: “According to his will.” It’s a catch many a Christian will totally skip over, preferring instead to pull a few Jesus quotes out of context:

Matthew 21.22 KJV

And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

John 16.23-24 KJV

23And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 24Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

We quote the passages which don’t have catches. But “according to his will” is kind of an obvious one; why would God grant us something he doesn’t want to give us? He’s not a genie, bound to answer our every wish. He’s our Father, with his own free will.

God is love, and therefore God won’t just give us stuff that’ll harm us or others. Our requests have to correspond to his will. Otherwise he’ll tell us no. He’s not gonna give serious consideration to a request that is, at its core, evil, destructive, or stupid.

I gotta admit verse 15 is repetitive and circular: “When we know God hears whatever we requested, we know we have whatever we requested.” Hebrew poetry is deliberately repetitive like that. For two reasons:

1. The author wants to really make sure we got it.
2. No seriously: The writers of scripture want us to understand what they mean.

(My little Hebrew poetry joke.) John verily, verily wants us to know God really does hear and answer our requests.

There are always gonna be Christians—in John’s time and ours—who wonder whether God’s even listening, who don’t have the patience to listen for God’s responses, who flail and wail instead of waiting on God. So take this to heart: You’re his kids. He hears you. If you’ve asked him for the right things, in the right spirit, he answers. Sometimes yes, sometimes “Not yet,” and sometimes—because he doesn’t just see the future but potential futures, and knows it’ll result in unintended disasters—he says “No,” and it reallys for the best, and we gotta trust him. Keep following him, and trusting him when he says no gets way easier.

But he does hear you. Bank on that.