NOTES for Joh 16:23-24

Can it really be true that now one may ask for anything in prayer? Yet in John 15:7 we read: "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." It turns out that everything is ultimately bound to Jesus' Message: one may ask for everything, but on one condition - that our desires coincide with the desires of the heavenly Father revealed in the life and fate of His Son. But is not too high a standard being set here? Undoubtedly high, because it is eternal, opening a dizzying, infinite prospect of personal development. And this last thing is possible only in constantly going beyond one's own desires, plans, and achievements - and therefore it presupposes constant openness to God in prayer and daily life, and growth in unity with Him up to His plans and His scale.

As for material sufficiency and prosperity, from Jesus' point of view these things were only means that can be used in different ways. In any case, they can hardly be the object of the passionate desires of Christ's followers. These things in themselves neither bring one closer to God nor move one farther from Him. In the end, someone has more luck in life, someone less; someone may become a millionaire, and someone may end up at the bottom. But the main thing among all possible life circumstances remains a person's ability not to lose joy and optimism from the fact that we are loved by our heavenly Father. And to look at any misfortune or success only as another task of changing something in oneself and around oneself - striving to understand His desires and decisions for the most grandiose task called human life.