“Ask, and you will receive” (16:24). Well, isn’t that what the “Word of Faith” teachers have been telling us? Doesn’t that mean if we just have enough faith we can ask God for a Cadillac and He’ll give it to us?

Well, no. And the context of this verse renders such a conclusion impossible. For if all we had to do to avoid poverty and suffering was to “claim” riches and comfort, why would Jesus say, “You will weep and lament. You will be sorrowful” (16:20)? Why would Jesus say, “You have sorrow now” (16:22)? Why would Jesus say, “In the world you will have tribulation” (16:33)?

Moreover, why did every single one of Jesus’ apostles go on to prove the truth of His words? Why were all of them murdered or exiled because they claimed His name? Why didn’t God deliver any of them from their tormentors and captors? Did they just not have enough faith?

And what about us? Looking back on 2020, with the hurricanes and the political unrest and the COVID crisis, why hasn’t God answered so many of our prayers for health and safety? Where is the peace that Jesus has promised us (16:33)?

Well, when did the disciples’ sorrow turn into joy? When did the darkness and confusion of the Garden of Gethsemane and the horror of the Cross turn into unshakable confidence? When were Jesus’ fearful followers, those who scattered from Him and left Him alone in His hour of greatest need (16:32), transformed into apostles who chose to die rather than to deny Him?

Jesus told them, “I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice” (16:22). It was when the disciples saw the risen Lord, when they touched Him and ate with Him and listened to Him that their joy returned. And because they held on to the fact of Christ’s Resurrection, they had hope that they too would rise from the dead one day, even though it was their faith in Jesus that led them to their graves.

And Jesus promises the same peace, the same joy to all of us today. For the Cross proves that all of Christ’s people are forgiven of even the worst of our sins. And His empty tomb proves that we can have new life, not only on the Day of Resurrection, but here and now, even in the face of grief and fear, even in the midst of poverty and disease. And we can be sure of this because of God’s great love for all those who trust in Christ (16:27).

And yes, it means that whatever we ask the Father in the name of Christ, whatever is thus in agreement with His good and perfect will, we will in fact receive (16:23; I John 5:14-15). So let us seek His will in His Word. And let us ask Him to keep all of His good promises today, even to give us peace in the midst of tribulation, even to give us joy in the face of death itself.

John 16:16-33 (ESV)

16 “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.”
17 So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?”
18 So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.”
19 Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’?
20 Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.
21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
22 So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
23 In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
24 Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
25 “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father.
26 In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf;
27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
28 I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”
29 His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech!
30 Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”
31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?
32 Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.
33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”