¹⁴This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. ¹⁵And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

Why does it matter whether we have an assurance of eternal life? The answer is as simple as this: when we are confident of our eternal life, we can be assured that God will always hear us when we pray to Him! Think about it: if we are not sure our salvation is eternally secure, we will always have an element of fear that God may turn on us if we don’t keep in line. There will always be doubt. After all, who among us can ever get to the point where our faith is strong enough, our behavior holy enough, that we can be sure we are worthy enough for an absolutely pure and holy God to respond to us? As the apostle Paul wrote,

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Rom. 5:8–10)

If God saved us while we were unbelieving sinners, how in the world could He withdraw His love from us, now His children, by taking away our eternal life?! Our sin now, after conversion, is certainly no worse than our sin before conversion, nor is His love for us now less than His love for us on the cross. Therefore, we can be assured that we “shall be saved,” that is, when we face death’s door, we will enter fully into eternal life. That is our confidence.

So if our eternal salvation is secure, where is our motivation to live for God and, in particular, to go to Him in prayer? Our incentive is the same as our motivation for coming to God for salvation. In our greatest need, we came to God, and He answered us graciously, forgiving us. So also, we continue to go to Him for our every need because He remains the same God who saved, forgave us, and continues to love us.

Fear of losing our eternal life is a poor motivator for loving God and others. Far better that we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior (2 Peter 3:18) and of His unfailing love for us. This gives us confidence that He hears us and desires to meet our needs. As John wrote earlier: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear …” (1 John 4:18).

Lord, I am overwhelmed by Your unfailing, eternal love for me. I don’t deserve it any more now than when You saved me at the cross. Thank You, thank You!