Whatsoever?

Whatsoever Ye Shall Ask — A Prayer

And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

John 14:13

Lord,

Whatsoever? Anything? Really? All that I ask You will do it? But I see there is this one qualification. You say, “Ask in My name.” Asking in Your name is asking as Your representative in accordance with Your will. Your apostle John explains this further in 1 John 5:14 & 15: 

And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. 

1 John 5:14-15

And so, I ask, is it Your will that we be separated from this one we love so dearly? So why cannot I pray for the impossible — that You will raise her up and return her to us?

As I think on this, I remember Your words to Martha near the tomb of her brother, Lazarus, when You said “Thy brother shall rise again.” But when Martha thought about it, she replied, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” I’m sure she did not want to wait until then and wished for her brother to be alive at that very moment just as I long to see me sweet granddaughter’s face again. Your words in answer are perhaps the most powerful ever spoken:

“I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:” 

John 11:25

Then later You spoke these words:

“Lazarus, come forth.”

John 11:43

And the man who had died walked out of the tomb.

So, I think, Lord, “How about Elisia? Why not her too? She was a faithful servant of Yours on this earth and she left a hole in the lives of us who loved her–an emptiness which nothing can fill. If You are the resurrection and life as You say (and I believe you are) can You not return her to us as You did Lazarus before the last day?”

Then in a still small voice comes Your answer: “Wait a little while. I am coming. Elisia and all those who sleep in me will rise, and you too will leave this world behind to be together, separated no longer, with me for all eternity.”

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

From Dan’s journal 11/30/2023