If we treat Jesus as a genie we will use Him to serve our will. But if we regard Jesus as our Lord and God we will serve Him and seek His will. That is the qualifier that John gives us here. “If we ask anything according to His will,” He promises to hear us and to act in response to our prayers.
if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us (1 John 5:14)
I read a comic recently where a boy found a brass lamp on the beach. He brushed the sand off and tried to rub off the grime. Out emerged a genie. The genie told him he had three wishes, anything he wanted. The boy’s first wish was for a thousand more wishes.
Sometimes we can treat Jesus like that, a genie at our disposal, particularly when we read passages like this: “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14–15). John wrote something similar earlier in his letter, “whatever we ask we receive from Him” (3:22).
Is that what John is offering us, a carte blanche for whatever our heart desires? It is natural for us to think along those lines, particularly when we are so prone to seek first our own kingdom. But that is not what John is offering us.
John is assuring us of the confidence we can have in our salvation.