In the 14th chapter of John's Gospel, verse 14, our Lord says, "If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it." Are we getting those things which we ask ? Are our prayers being answered ? Or are we praying from day to day, because it is our habit, without looking for or receiving an answer to our petitions ?

Many of God's dear people seem to be doing so. May we therefore search our hearts, and God's Word also, to find why it is so.

Our Lord's promise to answer the prayers of His people is positive, and large:"Whatsoever ye shall ask;" "If we ask anything;" "All things whatsoever ye shall ask; " "Ask what ye will; " "Whatsoever we ask," are the measure of our privilege in coming to God; and His promise to hear is equally positive:"That will I do;" "He heareth us"; "Ye shall receive; " "It shall be done," "We receive " (John 14:13; i John 5:14; Matt. 21:22; John 15:7; i John 3:22). If the privilege of asking is large, and the promise to answer positive, what is it that hinders us from receiving what we ask ?

It is because there can be on God's part no unholy answering to the prayer a Christian may offer, nor a disregard of His honor and glory.

When the mother of Zebedee's children asked for her sons positions of honor in Christ's kingdom, Jesus answered, "Ye know not what ye ask " (Matt. 20:22). When Paul besought the Lord three times to remove the painful thorn which troubled him (2 Cor. 12:7), his prayer was answered in quite a different way than he had expected. Israel's prayer to satisfy their craving in the wilderness, was answered, but it brought leanness into their souls (Ps. 106:15). If God should hear every prayer offered, even by those who are His children, it would frequently be to their hurt instead of blessing. One would pray for wealth; another for position; another for worldly ease, etc. I have read of a celebrated general who always prayed to be successful in battle; and there have been Christiana on both sides of conflicting nations each praying for the success of their armies, rather than with humiliation before God and confession of what has caused the conflict. So the apostle James says, "Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts "(James 4:3).

Very often God's people are not in a condition to have their prayers answered (Isa. i:15),and God refuses to hear them, that their condition may be realized, and they be brought to repentance and brokenness of spirit-and this whether it be an individual or a nation. If my child is naughty and disobedient, and in that condition asks me for what may even be good for him, and which I intend to give him, I must withhold it for the moment, that he may realize his wrong-doing and seek forgiveness. So with us, God may refuse our request or delay His answer, that we may get in a right attitude before Him.

In those scriptures first quoted, which give us the broad promise of answer to our petitions, we also find the conditions for prevailing prayer.

In John 14:13, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." In 1 John 5:14," If we ask anything according to His will," points to the character of prayer we should offer. We could not associate the name of the Lord Jesus Christ with anything of a worldly or a selfish nature. Our prayer must be only such as we can rightly attach His name to. To such prayers we have the Lord's promise that they shall be answered. F.