Many claim the promise of 1 John 5:14-15, thinking that prayer is the way of getting whatever we desire. A quick reading reveals that it does say whatever we ask, God will give to us. As creatures of our culture, we don’t go any deeper than what makes us feel good. Like everything else in modern Christianity, we’re content to skim the surface of the passage, make it apply to our lives, name it, and claim it.
This is what decades of false teaching, poor exposition, and outright heresy have done to the thinking of the contemporary church. The good news is, yes, Jesus does promise to give us whatever we ask. The bad news for those seeking an easy avenue to health and wealth is this promise comes with a condition that one can only understand by a careful reading and understanding of this rich and deep promise.