Our verse today is found in the upper room ministry of the Lord Jesus as He unfolds the blessings that are ours in this present Church age.

In the Gospel of John, we not only learn who the Son is, as having become Man, but through Him we also learn who the Father is: “No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (Jn. 1:18). The Lord could also say, “He that has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9). In this portion of His discourse, the Lord encourages us in prayer to the Father.

The point is not that we should not pray to the Lord Jesus. We have examples of praying to the Lord in Scripture (e.g. Acts 7:59–60). However the Lord Jesus, the Son, would encourage us that the Father Himself loves us (Jn. 16:27) because we have loved His Son. The Son does not need to ask the Father on our behalf; we can speak directly to His God and Father, as our God and Father. Such is the relationship we have been brought into through the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wonderful grace!

When our blessed Lord walked on this earth, His disciples brought all their questions, concerns, and fears to Him. We can still do this, but the Lord would encourage us to speak to our Father in the same way. He is not a God afar off, but we have been brought near to Him, and He loves us with a Father’s love, a divine unfailing love that has been fully expressed in Him giving His beloved Son for us. And as Romans 8:32 says, if He “has not spared His own Son … how shall He not also with Him grant us all things?” Of course this assumes we ask for what is according to His glory and for our blessing.