Shaken Confidence

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him."
1 John 5:14&15

I wonder what has happened to shake our confidence. We know that we are children of God. In the New Testament, God tells us that our relationship with him is not like a slave and master relationship, for the slave does not know what the master's plans are. No, we have a new place with God. We are his children, his bride, his brothers and sisters. All of these are identified as pictures of the relationship we have with God. So if we have this kind of family relationship with him, why do we lack confidence to approach him?
    Confidence is critical to a successful Christian life. If we don't have it, we will never even ask God for things, because we don't think he will listen. If we have this lack of confidence, we will never exercise faith.You see, faith is all about confidence. If we have faith, we are confident in God to do what we ask. Yet some of us cannot even bring ourselves to ask him due to our lack of confidence. If we muster the courage to ask, we have little faith to believe that he is going to hear and answer.
    What we need is a change of mind. We need to realize that because of our relationship with God, we have full rights to approach him boldly. It is more than a right. In fact, God wants us to approach him with boldness. He wants us to have confidence in him. When we do, things happen. When we are confident, he responds with joy to our requests. We have to stop thinking of ourselves as inferior people with little right to approach God. We need to begin to think of ourselves the way God does. We are his family. We are his relatives. In fact, we are his friends. It is for these reasons that we have absolute right and authority to go to him. Once we believe this, we will begin to expect answers.
    I believe it is time to begin praying prophetically. This means, instead of only begging God for answers, we begin to proclaim that we already have the answers. If we need to be rescued from a certain situation that is a struggle, we say, "God, thank you for delivering me from this struggle." This is what I call, 'praying on the other side of the issue.' We have so much confidence that we believe we already have what we have asked for. Jesus taught us to pray with this kind of faith. We need to always be people who fear God. It is with the utmost respect and trembling that we go before him. But he has already told us to believe this way. We are not to have shaken confidence. We are to have full confidence in him, in his ability to answer us, and in his willingness to do just that. When we have it, instead of begging, we will be thanking him for what has already been accomplished. So regain your confidence and take up your positions. God has given us a new place, a new relationship with him. Let's go to him with confidence.