I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 14-16

John records here a promise which Jesus made that has given those who read it difficulty throughout history.  John writes that Jesus said that we can ask anything in His name and He will do it.  That is a very powerful promise. We can ask anything in His name and He will do it.  However, it doesn’t always seem to work that way.  There are two reasons why and those reasons are related to each other.  First, throughout the Gospels Jesus repeatedly tells us that if we have sufficient faith, we will be able to accomplish great things.  Now, He also tells us that sufficient faith is not very much; all we need is as much faith as a mustard seed.  The second reason is one we find in the context here.  Jesus made that promise to a very specific group of people: those who believe in Him and obey His commandments.  So, in order to take advantage of Jesus’ promise you must have sufficient faith, although that is not very much, and that faith must be in Him.

That brings us to an understanding about why we fail to see this promise fulfilled.  Despite the fact that it takes very little faith, it does take faith.  But more importantly, as James says in verse 4:3 of his letter, many of those who seek to take advantage of this promise seek to do so with the wrong motives.  So, asking God to have our preferred candidate win the election is unlikely to be answered, but asking God to transform people so that they serve Him, that will be answered.  In the recent election, I believe that the selfish interests of most of the people would have been served by one candidate winning the election, but the real question is, victory for which candidate will turn more people’s hearts to God?  Let us pray for that candidate to win, even if it means suffering for ourselves.