Josh Benner

Category: Theology

  • Jesus is the true vine. John 15:1-2

    Jesus is the true vine. John 15:1-2

    In John 15:1-2, Jesus compares himself to a vine.

    “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, 

    In saying that he is the true vine, he’s pointing to himself as the one who sustains his people. Jesus is the vine.  God the Father is the vinedresser or gardener. 

    Christians are attached to the vine and bear fruit, which refers to good works and to Spiritual growth which is the result of one’s relationship to the vine, to Christ. A vine branch cannot blossom and produce fruit apart from the vine. A vine branch cannot survive off of the vine. Neither can a Christian exist apart from Christ. 

    Jesus talks of two different types of branches in these verses.  There are the branches which do not bear fruit and the branches which do bear fruit. 

    This is a reference to two different types of people within the church. People who believe in the gospel and those who do not. The fruitless branch is someone who goes to church, they know how to speak the churchy lingo. They might say they’re a Christian. They know a little bit about the Bible. But they don’t really believe in Jesus. They don’t truly believe that he’s their Lord and savior. 

    And because they don’t really believe in Jesus, there’s no fruit. They never had fruit. It’s not that their production slowed down or that they had a bad week. It’s that they never believed in the first place. 

    In the Gospel of John, the most obvious example of someone to whom Jesus is referring here is Judas who had been one of the disciples and who had departed from Jesus at the end of chapter 13. 

    It’s not that Judas was a believer in Jesus who walked away from him. Judas never believed in Jesus in the first place. 

    every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 

    God is the vinedresser who prunes the grapevine. 

    Understanding viticulture 

    Properly pruning grapevines is essential to maximizing the harvest. Without pruning vines, they can quickly become overgrown and entangled.

    Pruning requires cutting off small branches and old branches so that you can make room to support the new year’s grapevines. You wanted the vine to be cut to a certain length. Too long and it’s more susceptible to breaking. Pruning was primarily done twice a year. It would be done in the spring when they planted and again in the fall at harvest to ensure healthy vines. 

    And that is all important to the metaphor and what the passage is teaching. 

    Because for the branch the bears good fruit on the vine, God as the master vinedresser, God prunes in order to maximize the harvest. 

    That’s what a vinedresser does. They have to cut away at the vine for the good of the vine. Imagine that you’re a branch on the vine. You might have all of these other branches and shoots that look good and are about to blossom. And then the vinedresser starts cutting. 

    It’d seem cruel! 

    But a good vinedresser knows it’s necessary to get the most fruit out of the vine. 

    God brings about things in our lives sometimes for our growth that can seem painful, that can seem harsh, that can seem unfair. Yet all of it is meant for ultimate good. And God has to prune us. 

    God prunes us 

    It can be different ways in different seasons of life, but God must use the knife to cut into us. This calls to mind a passage like Hebrews 12, where God is a loving father who instills discipline in his children. 


    Hebrews 12:6: the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 

    Sometimes that’s how God prunes us. By discipline.  Sometimes it’s through the challenges we face. 

    James 1:2-4: Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 

    James says that we are to count it all joy when we meet trials of various kinds because God uses those trials to work greater results in us. 

    There’s pruning. Sometimes it can be through illnesses or life circumstances. Sometimes God takes things away from us, but for greater purposes. Sometimes it can be through setbacks. But God works through those challenges and situations. 

    In the process, he produces different results. No two branches are pruned exactly the same. But to be a Christian is to be part of the vine, and to be part of the vine is to produce fruit. And to be part of the vine is definitely to be pruned. God is a perfecting God.

    God is faithful to work in us. 

    God can prune us through relationships. People in our family, people in the church, people from work. He can use people to be transformational in our lives. Kari is getting me a pruning knife in October, Lord willing. He can prune through his word. 

    2 Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

    God can use his word in mighty ways in our lives. And let us remember that when we read our Bibles. That the Word should challenge us. We are sinful and imperfect. God’s Word is true and points us to holiness. It can be challenging to be confronted with the Bible. 

    You can have weeks or months of reading the Bible and nothing really stands out to you and then you come across a passage that feels like it was written with you in mind. Because God uses his word to cut us. He uses it to prune us. 

    Hebrews 4:12 says: 

    the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 

    How is God pruning you? 

    Is there an area of your life where you’re not living up? Where you know you’re not honoring God? Is there an area of sin that you’re struggling with? Is there an idol that you’re holding onto? Is there a person you’re withholding forgiveness from? 

    The answer for that question will vary from person to person. But what does not change is that God is working in his people. You’re not a finished product.

  • A savior who provides. John 14:22-31

    A savior who provides. John 14:22-31

    Last will and testament 

    John 14 is like the last will and testament of Jesus. 

    A Last Will and Testament is a legal document where a person specifies their final wishes regarding their assets and specifies how they wish to provide for family members, friends, pets, and other organizations. 

    Most standard in a will is what a person gives to their spouse and children. Millionaires have left vast fortunes to families, endowed scholarships at universities and donated to various philanthropic endeavors. People have given money to churches, charities, and communities. 

    People have used wills to give to loved ones or to take a final jab at people with whom they had strained relationships. 

    When the hotel heiress Leona Helmsley died in 2007, she entirely cut two of her grandchildren out of her will. For the other grandchildren, their inheritance was contingent upon them making regular visits to their father’s grave. And she left $12 million dollars to her dog, a Maltese named Trouble. 

    When the comedian Jack Benny died in 1974, he had made a provision in his will that his widow was to receive a single long-stem red rose everyday for the rest of her life. She outlived him by nine years and received more than 3,000 roses. 

    In John 14, we see the caring provision that Jesus made for his disciples and ultimately for the church. 

    Jesus will highlight three provisions he’s made for his disciples, and ultimately for his church in John 14:22-31. 

    1. The Holy Spirit 

    In John 14:21, Jesus says: 

    Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.

    This prompts an apostle named Judas (but not the same Judas who betrayed Jesus to ask in verse 22: Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 

    In verse 23, Jesus says: If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 

    Jesus talks about obedience to him and keeping his word. And in answering, he says that Jesus and his Father will love the person who keeps his word and make their home with them. There’s some nuance here. 

    In 14:16, Jesus has talked of giving a helper, advocate, counselor to his disciples. That is the Spirit. 

    But in verse 23, Jesus is saying that it is he and his father who will make a home with the person. Think of it like progressing a thought. Jesus is giving further elaboration on the Spiritual dimension of how he is to provide for his disciples. 

    In verse 26, Jesus will specify that the helper he’s referring to here is the Holy Spirit. 

    So he is giving the helper – the Spirit – but the Father and Son will make a home with the person who loves Jesus and keeps his word. This passage emphasizes the Trinity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are working together. 

    And it is because we have the Triune Godhead that the Spirit who indwells a Christian can be mentioned in conversation with God and the Son making a home in a person. It is the Spirit who indwells. It is the Spirit who is in us. 

    And that is why it is necessary that the Spirit share in all of the divine attributes. Anything less would be inadequate. Anything else could not sanctify. The Spirit brings the presence and the experience of the Father and Son into our lives. It is by the Spirit, that Christ is manifested to us, is revealed to us. 

    1. The Word

    Jesus is speaking in 14:25-26. He will point again to his departure.  

    25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 

    Jesus is saying these things while there’s still time. But he knows where he’s going. He knows what lies ahead. As we said a few moments ago, Jesus talks of the Holy Spirit that he will give to his followers. 

    It’s only the second time in this gospel where we’ve seen the term Holy Spirit. 

    The Spirit is holy. Again, the Spirit has all of the attributes of God. The Spirit is not a force. It’s a person. The Spirit is not created, he’s eternal. And in this passage, Jesus is saying that the Spirit will teach those things that Christ has said. 

    he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 

    What does that mean? 

    When Jesus says to his disciples that the Spirit will teach all things and bring to remembrance all that he has said, he’s referring to the witness of the disciples in the writing of the New Testament. 

    All throughout the gospels, the disciples are not this really sharp, buttoned up group. We see their ignorance. At times, we see their vanity. They often miss the point. But these are the people who wrote the New Testament and were the first ones sent out to spread the good news of the gospel? 

    For these disciples who lived with Jesus, heard Jesus, saw Jesus, and beheld the risen Jesus, the Spirit would endow them with the ability to recount the word of God. 

    Like Moses and the prophets of the Old Testament who were entrusted to communicate the very words of God, the disciples too would communicate the greatest revelation of God to the world: the Word, the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

    The gospels are not just four eyewitness accounts. The secular world likes to treat the gospels like that. Just four accounts of a teacher. But they’re more than that. It is the Spirit breathed and perfect word of God to the world. It is because of that work that we have our gospels and our New Testament. 

    And it is because of the Spirit that we can trust the New Testament and the gospels. That these are not just opinions of men. It is the word of God. 

    For the disciples, it meant that the Spirit would point the disciples to the truths about the gospel and the ministry of Christ which were necessary to be communicated.

    And this is also the reason why the scripture must trump everything. Because there is no new revelation about Jesus today.

    Jesus gives us the Spirit, he gives us the Word. 

    1. Peace

    Jesus gives us peace. Verse 27: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. 

    One thing that’s interesting to consider is the idea of peace in Ancient Rome. For the Romans, “peace” was kept through power. And I think it’s fair to say that that’s true in America too. And I’m not really trying to make a political statement. But there’s peace by force. 

    But that’s not what Jesus is talking about with the peace that he gives. 

    As Jesus says, he brings peace Not as the world gives do I give it to you. 

    That’s because the world cannot give us ultimate peace. There are all sorts of things we can look to in order to have a sense of security. Money, our favored politician, to name a couple. They can’t give true peace. 

    A person can have all the money in the world. I’ve been going through a biography of John D. Rockefeller. Adjusted by inflation, his net worth when he died would be worth upwards of $400 billion today. 

    He still died. Money can give a person many things. But it can’t give you eternal life and it can’t give eternal peace. Jesus gives a heavenly peace. Jesus gives peace between people who were once hostile to God and God, yes, that’s part of it.

    But here, the idea of peace has more to do with an inward peace in spite of the turmoil of the world and what’s around us. 

    In Psalm 4, in the midst of chaos, David looks at being able to get a good night’s sleep as a sign of the true peace he has with God. 

    Psalm 4:8:In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. 

    In Galatians, Paul will call peace a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). In Philippians 4, Paul will talk about peace that surpasses understanding (Philippians 4:7). Peace is a sign in the Old Testament of the Messianic Age. 

    Jesus offers a peace that the world cannot give. Do we always feel perfect peace? I highly doubt anyone who’s honest would say so. Some of the greatest Christian thinkers who have ever lived have written about their own struggles and faith challenges. 

    But know that we have a savior who is the way, the truth, and the life. He came to give peace. In a world where there’s so much turmoil, he is meant to be our true hope and our true peace. 

    Perhaps part of the reason why we so often lack peace is that we too often get too caught up in a worldly perspective what peace ought to look like. 

    Bruce Barton is helpful in the Life Application Study Bible Commentary on this. I’m paraphrasing his ideas. The world’s peace is meant to give us a sense of security in ourselves, in this life. Jesus is meant to give us peace in him and knowing his gospel and who he is and walking with him. 

    The world likes to say that peace should bring ease. The Bible points us to having peace that God will provide, but gives no such promise that things will always be easy. But through the difficulty, we have God. 

    The world likes to say that peace is the absence of conflict. Ultimately, that is the future hope we have in a perfected state. It is the hope we have today in that we have peace with God. But with a world that is sinful and opposes God, in spite of the conflict, Jesus invites us to remember that we are his. 

    The world wants us to look to a certain set of circumstances for our security. Jesus invites us to be secure in him.

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  • Another Helper. John 14:15-16

    Another Helper. John 14:15-16

    In 2019, Merrill Lynch and Age Wave did a survey on Americans over the age of 55 on the subject of end of life planning. 45% of those over the age of 55 did not have a living will. 

    And when it came to having a living will, an advanced directive in terms of end of life decisions, and a power attorney, that applied to just 18% of those surveyed over the age of 55. You might think “well maybe those legal affairs aren’t equally relevant for everyone.” 

    That may be. But in the same survey, nearly half of respondents – 43 percent – expressed worry that they lacked an advocate to look out for their interests at the end of their life. Planning for death is not an enjoyable task. 

    On the night before he was to go to the cross, Jesus was telling the disciples of the provision he was going to make for them when he was gone. He knew the agony and torture that awaited him. But here he is thinking about his disciples. 

    He was going away to the Father, but Jesus told the disciples that he would not leave them as orphans. In John 14:15-21, Jesus talks about two provisions which he made for the disciples. 

    The promise of the Holy Spirit, and the promise of his return. 

    1. The Promise of the Holy Spirit 

    Jesus tells his disciples: If you love me, you will keep my commands. 

    D.A. Carson points out that this is actually the first time in the Gospel of John where Jesus has called the disciples to love him. Jesus has talked of his love for the Father, and the Father’s love for him. Jesus has talked of his love for the disciples, and he’s called the disciples to love each other. 

    He’s talked about the importance of loving the Father. He’s talked about eternal life. But here he talks of the importance of loving him. 

    And love results in keeping his commands. Truly knowing Jesus, truly getting it with the gospel results in a life that is changed by the gospel. And so as a result of verse 15, Jesus continues speaking.

    John 14:16-17: 

    16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 

    Studying the word “paraclete” 

    In verse 16, Jesus says that he will give another Helper. 

    That’s the word the ESV uses. It comes from the Greek word “paraclete.” And the way that word is translated varies quite a bit in English Bibles. 

    NASB, and New King James Version also translate the term as “helper.” The King James says “comforter.” NIV and NLT say “advocate.”  The Christian Standard Bible says “counselor.” The Message says “friend.”

    It’s such a rich and multi-faceted term that I think English translations struggle to capture the full meaning of the word.In a sense, all of those translations are right because they all capture different aspects of the meaning. The Spirit is all of those things. He is our helper, comforter, advocate, counselor, and friend. 

    Instead of talking about which one of those words is best, I think it’s helpful to take a moment and get a sense of how the word is used in the Bible and to allow that to paint the picture of what the paraclete, the helper, does. 

    Also, it’s worth nothing that Jesus says “another helper,” and he says that because he too is a paraclete. Jesus is the first helper. It is the Spirit who is the second helper who will come after Jesus has gone. 

    The Greek word paraclete is used four times in John’s Gospel and once in 1 John 2:1. And that is the extent of the usage of that term in the New Testament. 

    Atchafalaya river 

    In the book Creature of the Word, the authors give an illustration about a river in Louisiana called the Atchafalaya. It’s an important river for industrial and commercial activities. But it is totally dependent upon the Mississippi River. 

    It’s a distributary that breaks off of the Mississippi, but otherwise has no other water source. So if the water on the Mississippi is high, the Atchafalaya will be high. If the Mississippi is low, the Atchafalaya will be low. But ultimately, the Atchafalaya owes all that it has to something outside of itself. 

    The river achieves what it achieves because of its source. So it is with the Holy Spirit. End of verse 16. Jesus has talked of how he will provide this helper, this paraclete. To be with you forever. 

    Jesus had an earthly ministry that lasted for a finite amount of time. It was short. About three years. But he gives the Holy Spirit which we will have forever. 

    When Jesus was saying these words, that had not yet been realized. The disciples had not yet been indwelled by the Spirit. 

    Theology – Holy Spirit 

    In the New Covenant, the people of God, who have faith in the gospel will have the Spirit of God dwelling in them. And so when Jesus says If you love me, you will keep my commands, that is ultimately true due to the work of the Spirit. 

    Love for Christ, obedience to Christ, and the Holy Spirit will all work together in New Covenant. Because it will be the Holy Spirit who enables people to obey Christ. 

    The world so often misunderstands the heart of the gospel, and of the Christian life. 

    And sadly still, too many Christians misunderstand this. And what we misunderstand is the Spiritual aspect of faith. The Bible is not teaching us “just be good and God will love you.” That’s what the world often thinks Christianity is. And again, too many Christians think that way too. Strive to be good enough. 

    That is exactly what the gospel is not. 

    We are saved by grace. 

    But. 

    For a person who truly has faith, they have the Spirit and the Spirit works in them. And it is that which results in a life that is changed by the gospel. 

    Christianity is not YOU be good enough so God will accept you. 

    It’s that you’re not good enough. But on the merit of Christ, God will accept you. And for the person who truly has faith in Christ, they have the Spirit, and it is the Spirit who works goodness through them. So we are not saved because of our own goodness. But to have a life that is unaffected by the gospel shows that someone doesn’t truly have the gospel. 

    That is why Jesus says If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 

    Because in the New Covenant, the time we’re in now, true love for Jesus is in the Spirit. 

    The Holy Spirit has a ministry which carries on the work of Christ. 

    Without its source, the river dries up. 

    -It is by the Holy Spirit that we are born again when we have faith in Christ. 

    -The Holy Spirit teaches us and points us to truth and to righteousness. 

    -The Holy Spirit bears fruit in our lives which enables true believers to live according to the virtues which were valued and exemplified by Christ. 

    -The Spirit equips us with Spiritual gifts to use in order to serve God and build up his kingdom. 

    -The Spirit does convict us of sin while also working to sanctify and transform us to greater love for God.

  • Sermon: Calming the storm – Mark 4:35-41

    Sometimes Jesus meets us in the storm. In this passage, the disciples find themselves out on the Sea of Galilee when they get caught up in a ferocious storm. Why are they there? Because Jesus had them get on the boat. Where’s Jesus? He’s asleep on the boat. But when he wakes up, he will respond in a way which will leave the disciples with fear and awe, as they question “who is this?”

    Sermon manuscript

  • Jesus and answers to prayer. John 14:13-14

    Jesus and answers to prayer. John 14:13-14

    In his book “Prayer,” writer Philip Yancey gives examples of some well known prolific prayers. 

    He says that the 17th century English Bishop Lancelot Andrews devoted 5 hours a day to prayer. The 18th and 19th century English minister Charles Simeon rose daily at 4am to pray for 4 hours. -There’s an order of Catholic nuns who pray in shifts and where people form their order are praying all day, everyday. Martin Luther would pray for 2-3 hours, or more, a day. 

    Prayer is a practice that the Bible calls us to and values. Over 650 prayers are found in the Bible. Prayer is something that the vast majority of Americans value. In research polls, I saw numbers ranging from 55-65% of Americans saying that they pray everyday. 

    But there’s often a disconnect. 

    Even though we know it’s important. Even though we do it, for many, prayer is a struggle. The prayer life is not full of joy and expectation, or intimacy with God. Prayer can feel cold and stagnant. It can feel like a waste of time, or feel pointless. 

    There are prayer warriors today, like the people I mentioned a moment ago. But I think that most of us, if we’re being honest, are much more likely to have an unsatisfactory prayer life.  

    But why is this the case? 

    Yancey suggests that the prosperity in our society might also inhibit prayer. 

    We can be tempted to rely on ourselves, our abilities, our talents, instead of prayer. 

    I think that part of the problem with prayer is that American Christians are often not poorly taught about the purpose of prayer. 

    And I think that John 14:13-14 gets at the heart of the Christian prayer life. 

    Prayer passages 

    Jesus says: Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. 

    What does that mean? Does that mean that he will always give us what we want? Some interpret it that way. There are even other verses in the gospels which say similar things. 


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


    John 15:16: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.


    John 16:23: Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

    One verse later. John 16:24:Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. 


    And it’s not just in John’s Gospel that we see this. 


    Matthew 21:22: whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” 

    And there are other places to which we could look. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. 

    In that case, I’ll have a mansion. And a private jet. And a private lake. And a fleet of cars.

    But that’s not what the verses are saying. None of these verses actually gives an unconditional promise that all prayers will alway be answered in the way in which they want. 

    Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. 

    That is not an unconditional promise that we can always get what we want in prayer. It’s what we ask in Jesus’ name. And the point of  that is not that just a perfunctory addition of Jesus’ name to a prayer is what causes the prayer to get answered. That wouldn’t be prayer. It would be witchcraft. 

    Just say this incantation. 

    But that’s not what the verse is saying. Nothing in this passage is saying: you can get whatever you want. In fact, this passage is not primarily about us. This is a passage which revolves around God. It’s a passage that is Spiritual. It’s a passage that is missional. It’s a passage that has a heavenly focus. And in these verses, it’s a passage which deals with the glory of God. 

    And in looking at John 14:13-14, I want to look at the object of prayer, the purpose of prayer, the power of prayer. 

    The Object of Prayer 

    Verse 13:Whatever you ask in my name

    As with many other things that Jesus says in his ministry, we can lose sight of how radical his words are. If Jesus isn’t God on earth, and the savior of the world, then what he’s saying here is totally insane. 

    That we are to pray in his name. It’s blasphemous if Jesus isn’t who he says he is. 

    All the people you’ve ever met in your lifetime, I doubt that any of them ever instructed you to pray to them. To invoke their name as a source of blessing in your prayers. 

    But Jesus does. Because he’s the Lord. Whatever you ask in my name. 

    It’s also interesting considering how much time Jesus spends in this passage talking about the Father, and honoring and glorifying the Father. So again, the point isn’t just that we pray for what we want and then just attach Jesus’ name onto it and that’ll cause it to happen. 

    Praying in the name of Jesus is a sacred task. And we should never be flippant about that. 

    Now prayers are often addressed to God, to the Father, to our heavenly Father, to our Father in heaven. But the prayer is in the name of Jesus. He is the one who enables us to go to God in prayer. It is because of his name,  because of the salvation that he brings, because of the life that he invites us into. 

    The Purpose of Prayer 

    Remembering the object of our prayer is Jesus and that he’s instructed us to pray in his holy name and to pray for his holy purposes. 

    In his commentary, Grant Osborne says: “to pray in Jesus’ name means to pray in union with who and what he is, to pray in accordance with his will. Self-centered prayers are not answered.”

    When Jesus is telling the disciples to pray and he gives what we know as the Lord’s Prayer, he says in Matthew 6:10:Your kingdom come, your will be done, 

    We see similar language in Luke 11:2, when Jesus again is talking to the disciples about prayer and he uses the phrase your kingdom come.

    In a different event, in John’s Gospel, Jesus is talking about prayer:  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 

    God is glorified through his son. He is glorified through his sovereign will in the world. He is glorified through his coming kingdom. Jesus answers prayers so that the Father can be glorified through the work of the Son. Prayer is a transformational spiritual interaction between creatures and our creator where we are invited to speak to – and be heard by – the Almighty. 

    Prayer is God inviting us into his presence in adoration of his goodness, in confession of sins, in lamentation for the sins in the world, in thanksgiving for blessings, and in making intercession on behalf of our lives, families, church, and world around us.Prayer should always be in pursuit of God’s will in creation and in our own activities for the sake of the glory of God. 

    So to summarize. Prayer to God is meant to conform our hearts and wills to the will of God for the glory of God. 

    To quote Tim Keller from his book: “Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God.” “God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knew.”

    And so the heart of prayer is not about trying to get God to align with our will. It is to get our will to align with God. It is to surrender to God. It is to let go and let God.

    Romans 12:2 says: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 

    Prayer is meant to have time set aside to put our focus on God. To focus on his goodness and his will. There are a million stresses, a million frustrations, a million questions everyday. But in prayer, it’s meant to be a time with God. Again, we so often don’t take time for that. Is it any wonder that we’re so often so worried and anxious? 

    In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis said: 

    “The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.”

    Your kingdom come, your will be done. 

    It’s not “my kingdom come, my will be done.” 

    Spirituality in prayer 

    We should pray for our needs, for our loved ones, for our church, for our nation, for people in our lives. We should pray and thank God for the many blessings he’s given to us and to confess our sins before God. 

    We often look at prayer from a material perspective, but prayer has a greater spiritual aspect to it. That God cares more about our spiritual blessings than stuff.  He cares more about our sanctification and spiritual formation than our comfort or ease. 

    Early in the Book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul says: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

    God cares about our faith and faithfulness, he cares about our holiness. 

    We don’t always know the specifics of what God’s will is. And I think we can get too caught up on that sometimes. 

    It’s God’s will that we love him. It’s God’s will that we pursue holiness, that we have faith, that we worship him, that we don’t sin. It’s God’s will that we love one another. Those things alone really provide a pretty good life to how we’re to live. 

    There are certain prayers that God will always answer. God will always answer our prayers when we turn to Christ for salvation. 

    Romans 10:13: “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 

    God always gives forgiveness when we seek it. 


    1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

    God grants wisdom when we seek it. 

    James 1:5: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

    As we pray for God, there are so many other things we can pray for. That we would know, love, and honor God more fully with every day of our lives. We can pray that we would grow in the knowledge of God, day by day. We can pray that we become ever greater witnesses to the world of the love and grace of our God. 

    We can pray for opportunities to reach people with the gospel. And we can pray for our church. For the people. And that we grow as people and as a church. 

    Those are just a few examples. 

    Prayer teaches us humility before God. That we are not in control. We are not in control of our own lives. We are not in control of our circumstances. It teaches us that what we go through, we can go through it with God. Prayer is a time to sit with God and bask in his glorious goodness and to reset in him. 


    Psalm 46:10 says: “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

    The Power of Prayer

    Verse 14: If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. 

    Verse 14 is almost identical to the beginning of verse 13. In both places, the point revolves around Jesus granting requests which are asked in his name. Given what Jesus has said in verse 13, and grounding the reason in the glory of God, he reiterates that the prayer which is made in his name he answers. 

    And so as we begin to wind down, I think it’s important to remember the power of prayer. 

    God answers prayers. And the more in tune we are with the will of God, the more discernment we have, I think the more we see God answering our prayers, out of his goodness. 

    Our God is a good God. 

    Unanswered prayers 

    But we must also understand that not all prayers are answered in the way we want. Even some of the good things we pray for. A person healing from an illness, or recovering from an injury. We’re finite. We don’t always know or understand why a certain prayer has gone unanswered. 

    And those can be some of the hardest experiences we have in life. The world is ultimately fallen. And no matter how faithful we are, no matter how faithful a church is in prayer, there is still sin, and sorrow, and sickness, and death. 

    Sometimes we don’t get what we pray for. And we don’t know why. And it doesn’t make sense. But again, at the heart of prayer is meant to be a reliance in God. Sometimes a prayer is not answered because of the timing. 

    In the Book of Habakkuk, there is wickedness and destruction in Israel. The prophet has taken his plea before the Lord. 

    God says in Habakkuk 2:2-3:“Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; 

    Sometimes a prayer isn’t answered because God will because God’s will was to do something else.  

    “God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knew.”

    Can you trust that? Sometimes it’s hard. 

    Job said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21)

    In the book of Second Corinthians, Paul talks about some sort of malady he had been suffering. We don’t know specifically what the issue was. Paul simply refers to it as a thorn in the flesh. It’s generally assumed it was some sort of health issue and not a literal thorn. 

    But Paul talks about praying for relief. 

    2 Corinthians 12:7-9: a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

    His grace is meant to be sufficient for us. That prayer was unanswered because God would be glorified through Paul’s affliction. And indeed there are immense challenges that we go through in life that are not good, but that God uses them to shape us into who we become. We don’t always know why God does or doesn’t do what we think he should. And explanations that people try to give us often don’t make us feel much better. 

    In the Book of Isaiah, the Lord says: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 

    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (isaiah 55:8-9)

    Sometimes people can grow cynical towards God because of that. We question why he doesn’t answer a certain prayer. But the reason why he answers any prayer is because of his goodness. We don’t inherently deserve anything good from God. 

    But he does so much good in the world and for his people. 

    The greatest problem of our world is not a lack of goodness on the part of God. It’s the sinfulness of humanity.

    The story of George Mueller 

    George Mueller was a British evangelist and pastor whose life encompassed most of the 19th century, living from 1805-1898. He’s probably most remembered for his orphanages in the working class town of Bristol. 

    Thousands of children passed through Mueller’s orphanages. Mueller famously never asked for money, but relied on prayer for God’s provision. Some of the stories are absolutely incredible.

    In his life, he wrote down more than 50,000 prayer requests that were answered by God. 

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