Teach Me to Pray - Week #25: The All-Inclusive Condition

"If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you." John 15:7

The one simple condition to Jesus' promise is that we abide in Him and His words in us. "To be in Him is the way to have our prayers heard."

In this wonderful chapter on abiding in the Lord, Murray points out that when we are growing in abiding in Christ, the first stage is the stage of faith: "...his aim is simply to believe that just as he knows he is in Christ, so in spite of failure, abiding in Christ is his immediate duty and within his reach. He is especially occupied with the love, power, and faithfulness of the Savior."

But true faith always expresses itself in obedience, and so as we grow in faith in Jesus' love and power and faithfulness, we recognize the importance of obedience to whatever the abiding Lord tells us: "Obedience and faith must go together...Faith is active in obedience in the home; then obedience is faith stepping out to do His will...The peace that as a young or weak disciple he could enjoy in believing now evades him. It is in practical obedience that the abiding must be maintained: 'If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love.'...Now in this stage his chief effort is to unite his will with the will of his Lord and allow the heart and the life to be brought entirely under His rule."

Murray continues by saying that as faith increasingly expresses itself in obedience, we cling to the Lord in love; the inner life grows in its capacity to receive the life and spirit of the glorified Lord. We become more and more aware of the abiding presence of God in us (John 14:20).

"To those who abide like this, the promise comes as their rightful heritage: Ask whatever you wish. It cannot be otherwise. Christ has full possession of them. Christ dwells in their love, their will, their life. Not only has their will been given up but Christ has entered it. There He dwells and breathes into it His Spirit. He whom the Father hears, prays through them. What they ask will be done for them."

In the last part of this chapter Murray says two things that I want to underscore:
1. Our focus should not be so much on the abiding as on Him to whom the abiding links us. "Let it be Him, the whole Christ, in His obedience and humiliation, in His exaltation and power, in whom our soul moves and acts. He Himself will fulfill His promise in us." I have found this to be absolutely critical in order to walk well with the Lord Jesus! My focus must be primarily on Him and all that is true of Him or I will not abide (stay with Him) when the pressures come.
2. We must exercise our right to receive answers to whatever we ask when we are so united with Him in heart and mind and will. I've been challenged to be more active in taking hold of what is mine in Christ Jesus in the area of answers to my prayers. Murray expresses strong disagreement with our tendency to make up reasons why we don't have answers to our prayers and points out that if you gather together all that Jesus taught on prayer, you will find that He never taught that we should not expect prayer to be answered. "It is not that Christ would have us count the gifts of higher value than the fellowship and favor of the Father, but the Father intends the answer to be the token of His favor and of the reality of our fellowship with Him (II Samuel 14:22)."

The final sentence in this chapter is the following: "Prayer that is spiritually in union with Jesus is always answered."

Lord, I ask that You would open our eyes to Your beauty and power and desire; anoint the eyes of our heart to see You and empower us to focus on You and Your life dwelling within. Help us catch a glimpse of Your burning passion to live Your life in and through us and thereby may we find the divine power to live aligned with Your will. Come Holy Spirit of God and do this for us, and then help us take hold of and claim that which is rightly ours by virtue of the blood of Jesus through faith and obedience. May You be honored and glorified through continual answered prayer and may others begin to see Your favor upon us because of Your activity in response to prayer. Thank You, Lord, that You are doing this, in Jesus' name!