But the hard part, the honest part in considering our prayers, is that our will may not always be the same as His. The closer we are to Him in an abiding love relationship, the more likely it is that our will will match His, but that’s a lifelong process of discernment.

When we’re first learning to discover His will, it helps to begin asking ourselves before we pray: what would Jesus ask? What would He want in this situation? What would He want to happen in this person’s life? The only way we can answer that is to reflect on what we know about Jesus--His personality, His character, the goals and purpose of His life. That comes through first-hand knowledge of what He said, and what is said about Him, in Scripture--and through what we have learned from our first-hand experience with Him.

If we’re not spending consistent, meaningful time in the Bible

--if we’re not spending time every day in quiet, thoughtful prayer--we can hardly know what Jesus would ask. If our prayers are not matched with His will, there is simply no guarantee we can have whatever we ask. But if they are -- can we imagine living that way? Receiving whatever we ask? It’s promised!