Jesus said in Luke 14:14, “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it”. This verse makes me nervous for a lot of reasons. It’s scary to see some people take this verse out of context and form an entire heresy out of it which in turn makes me cautious about voicing my interpretation of the Bible. It makes me concerned about what I pray and how I talk to God. There are so many stories in the Bible of people who were cavalier towards God and ended up dead like Nadab & Abihu, Uzzah, and Ananias & Saphira. The fear of the Lord is a real thing because God is righteous, holy, just, and a God of wrath. Maybe I shouldn’t pray at all! It’s also scary to consider asking God for something and having Him send me out my comfort zone. And yet, I still end every prayer with the phrase, “in Jesus name, Amen”. So what can I learn from these fears I have?
A believer’s method for interpreting the Bible is paramount. People who believe in the prosperity gospel use prayer like a lucky charm. They name what they want and claim it as their own and then flippantly use Jesus name as a way to get what they want (BTW, it doesn’t work). Each verse in the Bible should be taken in the context of the verses nearby, then the chapter, then the book, then the whole Bible. They seem to ignore 1 John 5:14 that says, “If you ask anything according to my will”. We should always be pulling truth out of the Bible instead of trying to stretch a verse to mean what we want.
A believer’s attitude toward God in prayer is so important. To ask something “in Jesus name” is to ask His will to be done. It is to acknowledge that we are insignificant compared to God’s sovereignty, power, knowledge, wisdom, goodness, and holiness. We can boldly approach the throne of God as His children because Jesus mediates on our behalf, but we are still not God. We can’t command God to follow our whims no matter how much we believe having a million dollars is what God wants for our lives. Because of who God is, our attitude in prayer should be humility and thankfulness.
A believer’s prayer life should not be ignored. If God is sovereign and we can’t order God around like a genie, then why pray at all? Because prayer isn’t about requests. Prayer is about deepening our relationship with Him. It is about aligning our sinful wills to God’s pure and good will. Of all the people who ever lived, Jesus seems like the one person who never should have had to pray. He is God. He has an eternal relationship with God the Father & God the Holy Spirit. But that’s exactly why He prayed all of the time. Prayer connects us with God. Jesus used prayer because He wanted to stay connected with God the Father.
A believer should ask requests in Jesus’ name. Jesus said to ask, so we should as long as we are conforming our will to God’s. God does answer prayer, but sometimes His answer is “no” and that should be ok with us. His plan is far better than ours. So approach His throne with humility and ask for the hard things. But also realize if you ask Him to give you strength to talk to a nonchristian coworker, you might have to actually do it. If you ask Him to open a door for you to do missions, that could very well be where He’s calling you. Remember to listen to those answers and respond “yes!” instead of staying in your comfort zone.
RESOURCE: Valley of Vision Prayer “Act of Approach” https://banneroftruth.org/us/devotional/approach-to-god/
And this is the confidence
that we have toward him,
that if we ask anything
according to his will
he hears us.
And if we know
that he hears us
in whatever we ask,
we know that we have
the requests
that we have asked of him.
-1 John 5:13-14
Perpetual Felicities 