There’s a phrase we often use at the end of a
prayer. You’ve heard me say it many, many times. Lots of other
people use it, too. Right before we say “Amen”, we say “we pray in Jesus’
name”.
We say that so much that we pretty much stop thinking about
it. It just comes out, automatically. But why do we say it?
Why do we so often close our prayers with “we pray in Jesus’ name”?
Well, our reading for today, and similar things in the
Bible, are the answer. Jesus says “I will do whatever you ask in my name,
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for
anything in my name, and I will do it.” And so, we say “I pray in Jesus’
name”.
But of course, those are not magic words, are they? There
are many times I have prayed, and closed the prayer with “I pray in Jesus’
name”, and God did not do what I asked. I suspect you’ve had that same
experience. God does not do everything we want just because we say “I
pray in Jesus’ name”. If God did, the coronavirus would be at an end, the
Vikings would’ve won the Super Bowl, and I’d have won the lottery.
And of course we all know that. We know we cannot get
God to do whatever we want just by saying “I pray in Jesus’ name”. But
that raises the question, what exactly did Jesus mean by this statement.
What did Jesus mean when he said he would do anything we ask in his name?
Well, let’s look at what he said right before this.
He said, “Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they
will do even greater things than these.”
So, when we ask something in Jesus’ name, what we’re really
asking is to be able to do what Jesus did. Now, I don’t mean that
literally. I don’t mean that we’re likely to get the power to walk on
water or turn water into wine or anything like that. I mean, obviously
God could give us that power if God chose to, because God can do
anything. But I don’t expect it to happen very soon.
When we ask to do what Jesus did, what we’re really asking
is to be able to be the type of person Jesus was. We’re asking to be a
person who loves God the Father and loves our neighbors as ourselves.
We‘re asking to be a person who will sacrifice for others. We’re asking
to be a person who will be obedient to God the Father, no matter what that
obedience may cost us. We’re asking to be a person who will be faithful
to God, no matter what the circumstances may be.
It also means praying, as we do in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy
will be done.” We say that all the time, but do we always mean it?
I’m not so sure. We mean it in theory, probably. We know that’s
what we should want, what we should believe. But there are a lot of times
when we really are praying “My will be done.”
And there are times when we think the two must be the
same. There are times when we think that what we want is so good, so
perfect, so right, not just for us but for everyone, that it obviously must be
what God wants. We are convinced that our will and God’s will have to be
identical. And so we pray for it, and we think we really mean it when we
say we’re praying in Jesus’ name, because we cannot think that Jesus would not
want what we’re asking for.
The end of the coronavirus is a good example. I know
lots and lots of people have been praying for the coronavirus to end.
Maybe some of you have. And some of those people have been praying in
Jesus’ name. At least, they sure thought they were. And they were
praying honestly and sincerely. Yes, it’s what we want, but why would it
not also be what God wants? How could God not want the coronavirus to
end?
Yet, the coronavirus is still here. Now, I want to
make clear that I am not saying God deliberately created the coronavirus and
unleashed it on us. That’s not the point. But again, God can do
anything. So, God could do away with the coronavirus before I finish this
sentence if that’s what God chose to do. And yet, the virus is still
here. And while, again, God could change that at any time, as far as we
can tell it’s not going away any time soon.
Why is it not God’s will to give us what we ask?
Especially when it seems like what we’re asking would be the best thing for
everyone?
I don’t know. But it’s not the first time it’s
happened. And it probably won’t be the last time it happens. I
don’t understand why. It’s just the way it is.
And when it is that way, we find out what it is that we’re
actually praying. Are we praying, “Thy will be done”? Or are we
praying, “My will be done”? Are we truly praying in Jesus’ name? Or
are we really praying in our own name?
If you have trouble with this, maybe it’ll help to remember
that Jesus had trouble with it, too. To me, one of the most important
passages in the Bible is when Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane. He
knows he’s going to be arrested, tortured, and killed. In fact, he told
the disciples, several times, that he was going to be arrested, tortured, and
killed. And yet, now that he’s actually going to have to face it, he
hesitates. He prays to God for there to be some other way to bring
salvation to human beings. He prays for God to please, please find some
other way, so he does not have to go through this.
It must have been so tempting for Jesus, in that moment, to
pray, “My will be done.” And he could’ve justified it. He could’ve
said, “Father, if I live, think of all the good I could do here. Think of
all the people I could heal. Think of all the people I could feed.
Think of all the people I could teach. In fact, Father, I’m not asking
you to save my life forever. But could we not just put it off for a
while? Let it happen next year, or the year after, or five years from
now. Think of all I could accomplish for you in those five years.
Why not? What would be the harm in that?”
Of course, Jesus never said any of that. Instead, he
was able to say, “Not my will, but your will be done.” Dying on a cross
was not really what he wanted to do, at least not at that moment. But he
was able to look past what he wanted and pray for God the Father’s will to be
done. Jesus was able to do that. And so can we.
There’s one more thing Jesus said about this. When
Jesus said he would do whatever we ask in his name, he told us why. He
said it was “so the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
The reason Jesus will do whatever we ask is to bring glory
to God the Father. That’s the reason. That’s the purpose.
Jesus does not do what we ask in his name to make us happy. Jesus does
not do what we ask so we can glorify ourselves. Jesus does not even do
what we ask to glorify himself. Jesus does what we ask to bring glory to
God the Father.
And if we’re truly praying in Jesus’ name, that’s what we
want to do, too. We want to bring glory to God the Father. So,
that’s a pretty good way for us to check on our true motives. It’s a good
way to check whether we’re praying for God’s will to be done or for our own
will to be done, whether we’re praying in Jesus’ name or our own. If
Jesus gave us what we asked, would it bring glory to God? Or would it
bring glory to ourselves?
I’ve said this before, but I think it’s possible that this
is the reason why, despite all our prayers, the coronavirus thing has not ended
yet. It will end sometime, but I think God is going to bring it to an end
in God’s way, and at God’s time, and God is going to do that in a way that will
bring glory to God. Not to any human being, but to God. Human
beings may be involved--God usually works through human beings. But the
glory will not go to human beings. The glory will go to God, at least if
people are willing to see it and acknowledge it.
There’s no harm in ending a prayer with “I pray in Jesus’
name”. But if we want to actually pray in Jesus’ name, we need to pray to
be the type of person Jesus was. We need to pray to always be faithful to
God, no matter what. We need to pray for God’s will to be done, even when
we don’t understand why God’s will is not the same as our will.
And most of all, we need to pray that, when God answers our
prayer, it will be in a way that brings glory to God. And when God does
answer our prayer, in God’s way and at God’s time, we need to give the glory to
God. Then, we will have truly prayed in Jesus’ name.
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