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 15:7 ESV). This is a verse about prayer, which on the surface appears that we can ask for anything we wish and it will be granted. Looking a bit deeper, we notice the condition of abiding in Jesus and his words abiding in us. This would indicate a relationship between what we wish for and our relationship to Jesus and his words. If we expand our inquiry into the surrounding verses, we find abiding is like a branch that is attached to a vine for the purpose of drawing nourishment needed to produce fruit. It is this fruit that brings glory to our Father. In the context of our verse is the importance of producing fruit; fruit such as love with its characteristics of joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The connection to his words is that they are to become tools we use to encourage the growth of more fruit, especially in the lives of others, which is enhanced by the characteristics of love. A summary of his words is for us to go into all the world and make disciples. In the context of our verse it is clear that our wish will be in relationship to producing more fruit. Our wish, our desire, will be to become better equipped to be more productive in our walk with the Lord in reaching others.

Prayer

Father, how tempting it is to lift a verse like this one out of context and try to apply it to meeting our own desires when it was intended for a different application. You chose us and assigned to us work to do and you gave us tools like this verse to help us in doing that work. A verse like this one is a means of connecting with you in doing the assigned work. Father, forgive us for focusing on ourselves over you and trying to apply verses like this to advance our own little kingdom.