Saturday 12th January
1 John 5:14-21
In order to be able to function well as human beings, we need to be able to place our confidence in key individuals and institutions in our lives. We need, for instance, to be able to have confidence in those we love and other significant individuals, such as a head teacher, a lawyer, or a parish priest, and we need to be able to place our confidence in organizations on whom we rely, such as our bank or an airline. How confident then would you say you are in your relationship with God?
A definition of confidence in this context could be: belief or trust in somebody or something to act in a proper, trustworthy and reliable manner. We don’t always foster and cultivate a confident approach to God but we need to. Why? Because the scriptures encourage us to do so. In today’s passage, for example, John writes: ‘And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him’ (vv. 14-15). The simple but deeply profound message is that God hears our prayers and will give us all that is according to his will.
The focus of our prayer should be God’s good, true and perfect will because he wills for us only what is for our good and well-being. If we pray for something that God knows is not for our good, or for others’ good, it is impossible for this prayer to be answered.
Being able to have confidence in God is one of the chief graces and blessings of being a Christian. Consider St Paul’s wonderful word of encouragement: ‘In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence’ (Eph. 3:12 NIV). Knowing this to be true, ‘Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need’ (Heb. 4:16). God invites us to have confidence in him. Trust in him. Rely on him. Turn to him. Every day is an opportunity to grow and mature in the virtue of ‘confidence in God’.
‘Hence we can confidently say,
“The Lord is my helper,
I will not be afraid; what can man do to me?”’ (Heb. 13:6)
1 John 5:14-21 • Psalm 149:1-6, 9
John 3:22-30
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