That your joy may be full

And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. – John 16.23-24

Prayer is one of the great mysteries of the faith. I must have read a couple of dozen books on prayer over the years. Any yet, I still don’t really understand to mechanics of prayer. How does it work? What a happens when two Christians pray for opposite things on the same matter? Is a prayer wasted if you find out that a situation was resolved before you prayed about it?

The wonderful thing is that we don’t have to get it, all we have to do is to do it. God has given us access to Him and all we need to do is to go to Him with confidence that we are being heard. We can have that confidence because if He is abiding in us and we abide in Him we ought to be praying in His will. It doesn’t mean that we always are going to get whatever we ask for. It means that since we are praying in His name and in His will God will answer our prayer. Prayer is to bring us into line with God’s will.

What a joy it is to pray for something and see the prayer answered His way. He is not going to give us bad things, but good. We can rejoice even when we don’t get what we think was best because he gives us what He knows is best.