Chosen to Receive Answers

John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you

Jesus is speaking this text in John chapter 15. He tells us that behind the choice we made to follow Christ, he was first choosing us. You did not choose me, but I chose you... He choose us, in this text, for two purposes.
1. That we should go out in the world and bear fruit.
2. That the fruit we bear should abide (continue, endure, last, be present).

Then there is a so that in the verse. This so that tells us the result that will follow if we have been chosen, if we bear fruit, and if the fruit abides and is still present. The result will be that I will be given anything I ask God for (in the name of Jesus).

Lets take a quick trip backwards through this verse to see if I am chosen. Do I have in my possession, or character, the things I have asked God for? Do I have current fruit in my life (the fruit is from Galatians 5:22, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control)? If the answer is no, has there been a time when I have had this fruit in my life?

Lastly, if I do have current fruit in my life, and I look back and see that I have had this same fruit in the past; am I bearing this fruit in the world. Jesus says that as we go we will bear fruit. Does this fruit continue to grow no matter where I go in the world? Do I have it at the grocery store? At work? In private? Do I have this fruit when the shades are open or closed in my home?

Jesus appoints the ones he chooses, to bear continuing and lasting evidences of fruit. Those chosen, will then have the things they ask God for in prayer.