Is God Obliged To Do Whatever We Christians Ask Of Him?

Scripture encourages Christians to pray to God, and ask Him to do things for them. Therefore, we ask God for peace, prosperity, promotion, divine health, protection, guidance, security, deliverance and other blessings.

After all, God is love, kind, gracious, merciful and compassionate, and if we ask of Him, it shall be given to us (Matthew 7:7). This means our work is to pray; and it is God’s work to answer or give.

Moreover, Jesus Christ unambiguously states that “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7).

Pay attention to the Lord’s words, “ask WHATEVER you wish, and it will be done for you.” It is like the Lord has sworn an oath to grant anything that we ask of the Father in His name. The only condition is that those asking should ensure that we abide in Him, and have His words also abide in us. 

In other words, we should ensure we have an unalloyed relationship with Him, and have His words richly abide in us and obey His commands. We achieve this as we devote quality time to read or study the Bible, meditate on it day and night and act on it.

Now, it appears two of Jesus Christ’s earliest disciples: James and John seriously took the Lord at His word as they approached Him to do for them whatever they would ask of Him. 

“And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you” (Mark 10:35).

Jesus’ response to them should send us back to reexamine, in context, His words in John 15:7, where He encourages His disciples to “ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

Think deeply about this: is God obliged to do WHATEVER His children ask of Him? This is the question we must ponder and answer. You see, we need to study the Bible by considering God’s will concerning our requests, and knowing or understanding what we are asking. 

Now, pay greater attention here. In Mark 10:36, Jesus asks James and John, “What do you want me to do for you?” In verse 37, they responded, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 

In verse 38, Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking.” Then in verse 40, Jesus further tells them, “… to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

Naturally, the two disciples might be surprised at the response of the Lord. They might think, “but you told us to ask whatever we wished, and it would be done for us.” But they were wrong. Jesus said they were ignorant about their request. 

The truth is, even though we have the right to ask of God whatever we wish, we should know the will or the promises of God concerning what we are asking. We must know the mind of God concerning the requests we wish to put before Him.

God is committed to giving us whatever we ask of Him if it is His will, or if it aligns with His promises. It is no wonder many years later, John writes, “…if we ask anything according to his will he hears us” (1 John 5:14).

This should remind today’s Christians to pay attention to praying to God according to will. This means we must study the Bible to know God’s promises, meditate on them day and night, and be inspired by the Holy Spirit to pray. 

By James Quansah