Ask and you shall receive?

Scripture I'm reflecting on:  John 15:7
     "But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!"

WOW........Can this really be true?.....

Reflection:
Well obviously I think we all know that this verse is not meant to be read literally as, "pray and you shall receive whatever you want."  It may sound like that, and we may occasionally wish it was like that, but that certainly can't be.  As has been my theme in past posts, if it were that easy, everyone would be a Christian.

I don't believe there is anyone out there who can pray for anything and have it come true.  If you are reading this and saying, that's not true it works for me, I would love to e-mail you a list of prayer requests that may or may not include a week long golf vacation to Scotland and a World Series Championship for the Baltimore Orioles next year :).

Conversely, I have actually found my personal life to be the opposite of this quote, that being, it seems like the more I pray for something I want the less likely I will get it.  This clearly isn't a "prosperity promise", at least not in a material sense.  So what is it?, what does this verse mean?  I don't think verses just happen to be in the Bible without meaning, so what is the takeaway we are supposed to find in this verse?

The part of this passage that sticks out at me is the word REMAIN.  Notice that REMAIN is mentioned twice.  This also has been translated as abide in different versions (and maybe something else in others I haven't viewed).  This seems to be the takeaway from this verse, that we are to remain in Christ, remain in the LORD, remain in their Word, and we will be fruitful, we will be happy?  we will prosper?  But again, I come back to a similar question, what does it mean to remain?  Remain in Him?  Have His words remain in us?

Final Thought:
You say, "Wait, You're already at a final thought?  You haven't said anything!"  Sadly you are correct, I have no answer here.  I researched this verse and found a plethora of possible answers.  One website says this was meant solely for the apostles.  One website said that we are to "abide" in Jesus love, rejoice in how much he loves us, and allow him the joy of loving others through us.  Another site summed it up with a poem "More saturated by the Word, More surely will our prayers be heard."

If I had to put out my opinion, I think this passage is meant to mean different things for different people.  For some people, maybe it is an encouragement to continue being faithful.  Maybe for some it is inspiration to become faithful.  For others (or maybe just myself), it must mean something more, because I know in my own life that praying for what I want is often a losing battle.  But am I reading this wrong?  Just because I don't physically get what I want, is that reason to say I didn't have my prayer answered?  Maybe this is to say only that our prayers will be answered, even if that means you don't get what you asked for?  Maybe I'm not getting what I want all the time because I would end up taking it for granted, or letting it lead me away from Him.  I can't argue this may be true.  I remember as a youngster my mom pulling out the line many times when I would whine for something....Put want in one hand and.....well if you know the quote you can finish it your mind, I'll keep the blog PG-13 for now.

I'll just throw out my short opinion.  For me, REMAIN means to clear the clutter, clear the distractions, clear all the useless mumbo jumbo (no , theres really no better adjective for whats going on upstairs for me) out of my head that I needlessly waste time stressing over, and just live in a way that pleases Christ.  By doing this, God will be with me, and take care of me.  This doesn't mean I can have whatever I want, but it means that I am not going at it alone.As

Maybe this is the right answer, maybe its not....I don't have a set in stone answer to these questions.  But I do think this is an important passage to reflect on, which I plan to do in detail.  Not just what it means, but how it applies to our lives.  How do we REMAIN when we drink our morning coffee.  How do we REMAIN on our work commute.  How do we remain when someone belittles you.  How do we REMAIN when life doesn't give you a fair shake.

If each of us can find our own answer to this question, I think the results will be an amazing sight to see