Devotions: Fearless Confidence

 

This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

1 John 5:14-15 New American Standard Bible 1995

 

If we ask anything, God hears us. This is a great promise to hold on to, but there is a bit of a condition to it. If we ask according to His will…I don’t think that He won’t actually hear us if we don’t, but He won’t answer it. God wants us to talk to Him and tell Him everything, but like a good parent He doesn’t just give us whatever we want. He gives us what is best for us. Sometimes that means saying no. The Greek word for “hear” doesn’t just mean the physical act of hearing, but can also mean to understand, give consideration or to yield. God does “hear” what we say, always. He sees and knows everything, so of course He also hears everything, but He doesn’t yield to everything. He only yields to what is according to His will and plan. It can be hard to know what is God’s will, so how can we have confidence that God hears us? The word confidence can be translated “freedom in speaking” as well as “free and fearless confidence.” I believe that we can come to God with confidence regardless of what we say because we can have confidence in God’s wisdom. We can be confident that whatever we ask, God will do what is best. We can be confident that He does hear us, and He will act according to His wisdom and will. This is actually a greater confidence than believing that He will give us whatever we ask because we know that He will only give us what is best for us. This condition was not whether He can hear what we say, but what He will yield to, and we can be confident that He will yield to what we ask that is best for us. Because of this, we can freely ask Him for anything knowing that He will do what is best for us, and not just give us whatever we want. This gives me a greater confidence because I don’t always know what is best, even when I think I do, but knowing that 1) I can come to God with anything and everything and 2) that He will only do what is right and good with what I ask, I don’t have to worry that I will ask for the wrong thing. I can confidently trust God with my hopes, dreams and wishes. He is the best Father we could imagine. He is our loyal confidant and provider. We can speak freely and fearlessly before Him and trust that He will do what is best.

Do you feel confident before God? Do you worry to know what is God’s will? Do you trust that He will only do what is best? Ask God to help you trust Him, to help you be confident in His love and wisdom.

 

 

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Translations of Greek and Hebrew words taken from blueletterbible.org