Ask Whatever

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

ASK WHATEVER

John 15:5-8

5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

NIV

We just heard Jesus say that if we do not bear fruit we will be cut off and thrown away, and now we are hearing that by remaining in him we will bear much fruit. It does appear as if Jesus is specifically talking to believers here because he is speaking about remaining in him and him in us. Surely any non- believer has not even started with Jesus and thus cannot remain in him. So it is that we believers are being admonished to remain in Jesus. Would any of us not remain in him? Apparently the temptations of the world are strong enough, and Jesus knows full well they are, to draw us away from him, that is why he is exhorting us to remain in him. We certainly would never say that we have left Jesus for the world, but in fact we must examine ourselves closely. If we are remaining in him then there is absolutely no doubt that we would be full to the brim bearing fruit. Jesus does not lie, and he just said that if we are remaining in him then we would be bearing much fruit. So if we are not bearing much fruit we must check to see if we might be following the ways of the world too much and not following the ways of Jesus as much. Has our spiritual life withered at all? Are we just going through the motions of being a Christian, church on Sunday morning, maybe Sunday school, or a small group, but in reality we are not filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with power and filled with the fruit? If we are remaining in Jesus bearing much fruit then we can ask whatever we wish and it will be given to us. The fruit is not a requirement but it is a result of remaining in him, just as the gifts are a result of being filled with the Spirit. The central point is remaining in him and if we do we can ask whatever we wish and it will be given to us. So are we looking to ourselves to provide all we wish, or are we looking to Jesus? Do we work our fingers to the bone trying to make as much as we can to buy all the stuff that we wish or do we simply ask Jesus? Maybe that is too simple. Maybe that is foolish to think Jesus would just give it to us. Maybe we think Jesus is giving us the ability to earn all the money we would ever want. Yet that is not a world view of Jesus. There are believers who live in other cultures that are literally living in poverty so how do we deal with that? This truth in transcultural regarding remaining in him, bearing much fruit and so being able to ask whatever we wish, so the question is what should we ask for. It would seem obvious that we should ask that God be glorified in our lives, that we ask for the Spirit to do the necessary work in our lives so that we do bear much fruit, and thus show ourselves to be his disciples. It is not about the things, as Jesus also told us that if we seek first his kingdom and his righteousness all the things would automatically be added onto us. So this asking is all about bringing glory to God. That should be our number one priority in life. That should be our number one thing to ask for, so that it will be given to us so that we might bring glory to God. Yes, maybe we can ask for the stuff too, but let us not make the stuff the whatever.