“Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” (John 14:13-14, NASB)

Bible teachers spend a lot of time qualifying Jesus’ teaching in John 14. The goal of such qualifications is reasonable: preachers do not want congregants’ prayers consumed with presumptuous requests. Unfortunately this “yes-but” teaching can emphasize the “but” at the expense of the “yes.” That is, it may obscure the shocking truth of Jesus’ statement. 

“If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” Ponder that for a second. The sheer magnitude of this statement astounds anyone who is paying attention. A recent experience drove this lesson home.

Michael, my second oldest son, and I had planned an adventure hike for some time. The last Saturday of August, we headed for the Hurricane Creek in the Eagle Cap Wilderness Area with my 18-year old daughter and her younger brothers, 16 and 12. 

After ascending to Deadman Lake (Don’t ask, I have no idea why it is named that!) and traversing another ridgeline, we mistakenly descended one canyon south of where we needed be. The terrain was, shall we say, difficult to traverse. We would make progress, have to backtrack, descend only to climb back. We traveled 1 ½ miles in 2 hours. We ran out of daylight about a mile from our car. 

I was “side-hilling” along the canyon and came to a steep descent. We “rappelled” down this by clinging to tree branches, only to encounter a cliff. Michael said, “We are going to have to climb back up.” And I replied, “When we get back to a flat spot, we need to stop and pray.” 

We found no flat spot, but I prayed while holding my body weight with a tree limb. I prayed, “Lord, rescue us off this mountain.” But as I prayed, I was looking around and thinking, “How can the Lord possibly do that? We are spending the night on this mountain.” The time was 8:05 pm.

I lead us farther uphill. Michael asked, “Can you go right?” because that was the direction of the car. But there was always heavy brush or some other obstacle to my right. I had travelled 50 to 75 yards from our “prayer meeting” when I stepped onto a flat spot. I looked at it a moment and realize this flat spot was a trail! I first thought we had found a game trail, but the trail was too well groomed. I realized this trail was the hiking path which would lead us to our car. Somehow – using the terrain, the bushes, and directing us without our knowledge – the Lord brought us to the path! I looked down in awestruck bewilderment! He had rescued us! It was 8:10. We hiked to our car within 10 minutes. He rescued us off the mountain. Wow!

“Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” (John 14:13 – 14) What an amazing promise! Yes, care is needed, so that we request only what Jesus might request of His Father in a similar situation. But the Lord uses desperate straits to remind us to ask big so we can go home! 

Like this post? Read more lessons like this in Theology for Young Christians: Lessons from Genesis.