NOTES for Joh 16:23-24

Can it really be true that now we 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." So it turns out that everything is ultimately tied 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 destiny of His Son.

But is the standard set here too high? Undoubtedly high, because it is eternal, opening a dizzying infinite perspective of personal growth. And this last thing is possible only in a constant going beyond the limits of 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 scale.

As for material sufficiency and prosperity, from Jesus' point of view these things were only tools that can be used in different ways. In any case, they can hardly be objects of passionate desire for Christ's followers, because in themselves such things neither bring one closer to God nor move one away from Him. In the end, some people have more luck in life, some less; someone can become a millionaire, and someone can end up at the bottom. But amid every possible circumstance of life, the main thing remains a person's ability not to lose joy and optimism from knowing that we are loved by our Heavenly Father, and to look at any trouble or success only as the next task of changing something in ourselves and around us, striving to understand His desires and decisions for the greatest task called "human life."