1 John 5:14-21

What does it mean to truly know something as a believer? Throughout the letter of 1 John, the word 'know' appears 36 times, and that repetition is not accidental. John is writing to remind the church that our faith is not built on guesswork or wishful thinking. We can know that we have passed from death to life. We can know that we love God. We can know that we have eternal life. These are not question marks. They are certainties. And at the heart of living in that certainty is prayer. Prayer is the one conduit we have for communicating with the God who spoke the universe into existence and holds all things together by His word. Yet so often it is the first thing to go when life gets hard. This message challenges us to examine our prayer lives honestly. Are we approaching God with hearts aligned to His will, or are we treating Him like a genie, expecting Him to bend to our desires? The difference matters enormously. When our motives are pure and our hearts are genuinely surrendered, we pray with a confidence that He hears us. And if He hears us, we can trust that He answers. Not always immediately, not always the way we expect, but always in a way that glorifies Him and serves His perfect purposes for our lives.