Dear friends, if our conscience is clear, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive whatever we request because we obey him and do the things that please him. And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. Those who obey God's commandments live in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Holy Spirit lives in us. ( 1 John 3:21-24 )
Another translation says, "if our hearts do not condemn us & if we know that He hears us". Often we refuse the power of prayer because of what we've done or been that makes us feel we have no right to be in God's presence.
But the Lord is not outdone, even by our failures. He says, "Come to me just as you are!" Why then do we pray so seldom, & only when we are in trouble? Our reluctance to pray is our resistance to God. But eventually life caves in, and we face problems too great for us. God rushes in to help us in the hope that we will be so amazed at what He can do with our problems that we will begin to trust Him with our potentials.
