What the Bible says about faith, pt. 2

THE BELIEVER’S CONFIDENCE
The Apostle John, in I John 5:14, declares for us the believers confidence in prayer: “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”

Confidence is the Greek word parrhesia (par-rhay-see'-ah). It is a compound Greek word from two Greek words; pas, all, rhesis, speech. It is defined as the absence of fear in speaking boldly, hence, confidence, cheerful courage, boldness. I am grateful that I can come before my Heavenly Father with an absolute lack of fear; that I can boldly (with reverence and respect) declare to Him my requests as well as requests for others. I find it difficult to imagine God other wise. The scriptures declare that believers have been adopted as sons. As a son, I have no fear in coming before my Heavenly Father. In fact, even when I need His mercy, I am told to, “…come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16).

Someone once said that this confidence is an absolute lack of reserve that marks true friendship. We can come before our Father and tell Him anything. He will never condemn us; He will never think less of us; He will never make fun of us; He will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

This confidence we have is towards God. If we do not know the right words to say, or if we say something incorrectly or wrong, we can still expect Him to hear us and to answer our prayers. Our emphasis is never to be upon what we say or how we say it. In fact, sometimes we do not even know how to pray. It is at times like that that we depend upon the Holy Spirit’s intercession for us, “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27). Our confidence is always to be “in Him.” Never is our confidence to be in our words. Our faith is always to be placed in Him and in His ability to answer our requests.

Ask is from the Greek word aiteo (ahee-teh'-o). It is defined as, to ask, and frequently suggests the attitude of a suppliant, the petition of one who is lesser in position than he to whom the petition is made. Our attitude in prayer is one of dependence; dependence upon God and His power to accomplish what we are asking. Never in scripture are we told to depend upon ourselves or our words.