Bible Text: John 15:7 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. John 15:7

When Gabriel Otero was in a government office in Argentina waiting his turn for help, another person who had come substantially after he had arrived was immediately processed. When Gabriel protested the fact that he had been there first, he was told that the other person “had a letter from the Pope.” The government worker explained, “He has a connection which we must honor!”

As Gabriel related that incident, I couldn’t help thinking of the time when John F. Kennedy was president of the United States, and the world was on the point of conflict as Cuba had pointed its armed Russian missiles at the United States. The situation was tense as reporters were being briefed in the Oval Office of the White House. Slowly a side door opened, and a four-year-old boy walked into the room, and the conference was stopped because that lad had a connection that was honored — he was the son of the president.

Have you ever wished that you had an “inside connection with God, something which has to be honored?” In a very real sense, you have one, provided you have become a child of God through faith In Jesus Christ.

In the Upper Room, immediately before He faced the cross, Jesus told the disciples, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you” (John 15:7). That’s a connection that must be honored!

Have you ever asked yourself why God should honor your prayers? Because you are a nice person? Because you are a good deal better than your neighbor or the women in your office? No! There is but one reason — a connection that must be honored. You are a child of God, adopted into the family as the result of faith in Jesus Christ. How do I know that? Scripture tell us this very clearly. Make a note of Romans 8 and Galatians 4:6, which says, “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’”

That word Abba is an Aramaic word and is difficult to translate. It has the connotation of a little child’s crying, “Daddy!” or “Papa!” in some cultures. It brings the response of a father who hears his little child crying out in distress.

Does God pay that much attention to the needs of His children? Is there really an inside connection, or is God rather indifferent to the needs of His children here on planet earth? How explain why some people seem to pray and nothing happens?

One of two options is open to us. (1) We can assume that God is either disinterested or not powerful enough to meet us. (2) We can assume that there is an inside connection but we as believers do not take advantage of it. We strive to solve our own problems and do not lay them at the feet of the Father, crying out for Him to meet us at the point of our pain and our deep need. Long ago, James wrote, “You want something but you don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives…” (James 4:2-3).

Friend, there is an inside connection with God. It comes as the result of what Jesus Christ did, whose death makes it possible for us to come to the Father in His name. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

The next time you are standing in the line of doubt and concern, wondering if God really hears and answers prayer, remember, you have an inside connection, one which must be honored. Don’t forget it.

Resource reading: John 14:15-31