Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
Parallel translations
- WEB This is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us.
- KJV And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
- BSB And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
- NASB This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
- NLT And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
We have confidence that when we ask anything according to God's will, he hears us. Prayer aligned with God's will is heard by him.
Overview
John applies the believer's assurance to prayer, promising that God attentively hears requests made in line with his will. This 'boldness' flows from our relationship with God through Christ and from praying for what he himself desires. Far from limiting prayer, submission to God's will is the very condition of confident, effective asking.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 23
- John 14:13Whatever you will ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
- Jer 29:12–13You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
- Jer 33:3‘Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great things, and difficult, which you don’t know.’
- 1 Jn 3:21–22Beloved, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have boldness toward God;
- John 15:7If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.
- Matt 7:7–11“Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you.
- Matt 21:22All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
- Ps 34:17The righteous cry, and Yahweh hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.
- John 9:31We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God, and does his will, he listens to him.
- Jas 4:3You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures.
- Eph 3:12in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him.
- John 16:24Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.
- Jas 1:5–6But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.
- Prov 15:29Yahweh is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
- 1 Jn 2:28Now, little children, remain in him, that when he appears, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
- Heb 10:35Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward.
- Jas 5:16Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.
- Ps 69:33For Yahweh hears the needy, and doesn’t despise his captive people.
- Ps 31:22As for me, I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before your eyes.” Nevertheless you heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to you.
- Heb 3:14For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm to the end:
- John 11:42I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude that stands around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”
- Heb 3:6but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house; whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end.
- Job 34:28so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him. He heard the cry of the afflicted.
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Christ at the center
Jesus is the Word of life made manifest, the propitiation for our sins, the Son in whom is eternal life — 'that you may know that you have eternal life.'
How 1 John 5:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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