The first and greatest promise is eternal salvation, so I don't think there is much of a debate there. (John 3:16) But what about the next greatest promise?
In my opinion this is the second greatest promise of God. "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you." John 15:7
Now if you’ll humor me I’d like to expand on this verse in John. While reading the book of John I started noticing how many times Jesus discouraged the very people who said they wanted to follow Him. (John 2:24 - very sobering verse . . . - and John 6: 60 - 66) just to name two. The reason I bring this up is because the first part of the promise listed above is, "If you abide in me" which means that we are truly Christ followers.
So many times in Scripture people came to Jesus, (The rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-22 for instance) and He read their hearts and intentions and challenged them to go one step further in their devotion. (Examples: Leave your family and friends and follow me, Sell all that you have and then come follow me . . . ) The point being that we sometimes gloss over this first part of that verse thinking that salvation is the easiest step in our faith walk. However, Jesus makes it clear that the way to Heaven is difficult, (Matthew 7:13) the road is narrow, and very few people will finish their faith journey. If these are creating sobering thoughts in your mind and heart then you are not alone. Each time I read the verses we just covered it forces me to re-examine my faith journey and sometimes even debate whether I'm truly a follower of Christ. (Although I believe that God does not want us to live our lives in doubt and fear about our salvation, but that is a blog for another time. 1 John 5:13)
So after that much longer than intended detour let's get back to (In my opinion) the second greatest promise that God has given us. Recap: Two qualifiers and then we get to the actual promise. The first qualifier we have already discussed, and the second one is just as vital, "and my words abide in you" What Jesus is saying here is that we have had to spend time reading and meditating on His Words and allow them to transform our thoughts and heart. (Romans 12:2)
Without that investment in time and energy Jesus is saying we aren't prepared to ask for anything with the proper perspective and motivation. (David recognized this truth as well and wrote about it in Psalm 37) And that is where I believe that a lot of believers (myself included) stumble over the true intent of what Jesus is saying. If we give this any thought at all most of us would conclude that He is not giving us carte-blanche to ask for anything we desire, can you imagine what a mess that would be? But the sheer weight of what Jesus is saying here is clear, "ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you." And it shall be done for you - what a promise! So how do we know when we've reached that magic point of correct alignment where our prayers are guaranteed to be answered? (James 5:16)
One of the many great things about God is that He does not want us to remain confused about His scripture, His promises and His desire for our lives. So He doesn't want us to be in the dark about this promise as well. The clear teaching of God is that when we pray back His will, and His desires, we can pray knowing we are standing on the very foundation of this eternal promise. The way I understand it is if I'm living my life devoted to Christ and His Kingdom, my desires and prayers are going to be directly in line with His, thus explaining the "Yes" that Jesus is promising in John 15:7. What do you think?
I'm linking to two websites that go into much greater detail about this subject that I could ever offer:
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/ask-whatever-you-wish
https://onecry.com/extraordinary-prayer/prayer-from-gods-perspective/
