If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you”  John 15:7

Occasionally when it is cold outside it is nice to wear a scarf.  When that time of year arrives, most of us just go to the store, browse through our options and pick one out that we like then pay for it.  But, pretend for a moment that you needed to make yourself a scarf.  You could buy a ball of yarn and some knitting needles.  But have you ever tried to use a ball of yarn as a scarf?  I don’t think it is very effective, it has to be worked into a scarf by the knitting needles.

Most of us would like to have our prayers answered like is promised in the above text.  But, while we believe ourselves to be practicing Christians, as stated in the first part of the text, Abide in me, we tend to skip over the second part of the text, My words abide in you, and go straight to the third part of the text, Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 

It’s like the ball of yarn and knitting needles, until the threads of yarn are knit together into a scarf it is just a ball of yarn, incapable of keeping your neck warm while out in the cold.

Gods promises are true.  But we need to let Him work His words into our lives, then His will becomes ours and our prayers will be answered according to His will.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  John 5:14

Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.  Leviticus 19:18

The intercom on the phone sitting on Richards desk beeped then blared forth the voice of his boss, “Richard, come to the break room immediately!”  Richard knew better than to ignore that tone of voice.  He wondered what he could have done to deserve his boss yelling at him.  He stood and raced to the break room.  As he stepped through the door he slipped in a puddle of water and saw immediately that his boss needed help cleaning up the mess.  Richard grabbed papers towels from the dispenser by the handful but it didn’t seem to be doing much good.  Richard noticed the janitor walk in with his tools and open the cupboard door under the sink.  More water poured out.  Richards boss raised his voice three notches higher, ordering the door closed.  The janitor calmly asked for  help to fix the broken pipe, but the request fell on deaf ears since for some obscure reason Richards boss despised the janitor.  Richard took a deep breath and bravely suggested to his boss that they help the janitor fix the broken pipe and in doing so the water would no longer be rushing onto the floor faster than they could clean it up.  The boss let loose a tirade about not liking janitors and what they stood for and how useless they were.  He ranted and raved until his voice was hoarse.  In the mean time the janitor did his best to fix the broken pipe on his own closing the cupboard doors every time the boss looked his direction.  In the meantime Richard and his boss continued to use paper towels to mop the water off the floor. 

So love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  The second most important commandment is this: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.  Mark 12:30, 31