35Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask." 36"What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.
37They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."
In Matthew 20 we read that their mother introduced the topic of conversation to Jesus, here we only read the boys talking. Both are right, each writer only recorded which key information they wanted to include. Note that Jesus is not agreeing to their future request, rather, He is asking what it is they want Him to do.
38"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?"
Speaking of His death and suffering.
39"We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared."
James was beheaded by Herod Agrippa I, king of the Jews, in AD 44. And Tradition has it that the brother John (author of the gospel of John, Revelation and the 3 letters) died of natural causes after his return from captivity and punishment on the Island of Patmos.
Application in regards to prayers and requests.
Negatively:
The country singer sung it right when he said, "I thank God for unanswered prayers." The brothers were not requesting a favor from Jesus, neither were they humbly asking to partake in His Kingdom, rather, they were demanding to be a part of it and have it their way, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask." Siblings, be careful that this is not you. We as Christians have become all too good at praying prayers in our will and then sprinkling it with Christian vocabulary and calling it good. Note, it is not the words or how you say it but the heart from which the words come. We say things like, "Lord please give me this job, but your will be done." When we are really saying, "Lord I want this job, and I want Your will to align with mine." We pray prayers very inconsistent with God's will or character (His nature if you prefer) and we end it with, "in Jesus name, Amen." Did you know that to pray in His name has nothing to do with that phrase? It means that you pray according to His name ~ His name represents all that He is and stands for. So I beseech you, before you make your "requests" known to the Lord, look into your heart and be sure you are asking for His kingdom and His will to be done and not your own.
Positively:
In light of His will, in light of His good and perfect name, pray and make your requests known ~ knowing full well that your prayers will be answered (a). Talking with God is not like wishing on a star, for what hope can superstition bring us? Since He is in existence and does indeed care for us let us cast all of our burdens on Him. We pray to God for wisdom, to handle situations as He would have us handle them. We pray to God for provision, that our needs be provided for (not necessarily our wants). We pray to God for protection, from the ruler of this age and the many ways he temps us to disobey our King. We pray to God that His name would remain holy in our lives, that we would speak of Him in reverence and love, that we would honor Him in our heart and our deeds. We pray for forgiveness, and the strength to forgive others. We pray for His will, in every facet of our lives we want to please God more than anything else and above anyone else, if it makes Him unhappy we want nothing to do with it and we pray for the strength to have nothing to do with it. There is so much more we pray for, so let your prayers be filled with praise to the God who alone saved us from our sins, and let your requests be made known to Him, desiring first of all that His kingdom come and His will be done.
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