Confidence for life is the focus of these three verses, but many times they are discussed with an eye to something else: the lottery-life. When we learn there is a Bible verse about getting whatever we ask for we run to that gas station to buy some of those magic beans. How can I ask God for things so that he gives them to me?
The lottery-life is an inversion of what John intended; it skips the point he deploys in verse 13.
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. (1 John 5:13-15–NIV)
[Read more…] about 1 John 5:13-15. “I write that you may have confidence,” says John.