Whatever You Ask In My Name

I would like to share something that has given me new insight and added a special dimension to my prayer life. It comes from a devotional I have been using in 2010. Funny, but it came to me from the clearance table and has proven priceless. I will quote from it in its entirety for the August 9th date as follows:

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask for anything in my name , and I will do it. (John 14:13-14)

"That the Father may be glorified in the Son." It is to this end that Jesus on His throne in glory will do everything we ask in His Name. Every answer to prayer He gives will have this as its objective. Where there is no prospect of this objective being obtained, He will not answer.

It follows as a matter of course that with us, as with Jesus, this must be the essential element in our petitions. The glory of the Father must be the aim-and very soul and life-of our prayers.

(Andrew Murray quoted in A Daybook of Prayer, Copyright Thomas Nelson 2006)

I love what Murray offers us. I have prayed for so many noble reasons. I have prayed out of obedience, out of personal need, to ask God to intervene in the lives of family and friends (and enemies.) We won't bother about less than noble motives. But the idea that the glory of the Father is the be all and end all for Heaven's motivation in surrendering an answer to my prayer is a revelation.

Many arguments went through my head when I read this and I quoted many verses. In the end I had to agree that Christ is single minded about this point, that the Father be glorified in His Son. If this condition is met in prayer all our secondary reasons are carried aloft on the same wind.

Christ fed many hungry souls, healed many diseases, raised the dead. The neediness of people cried out to Him and begged His power. It was, however, the Glory of the Father revealed in the Son that turned that power on.

I have asked the Holy Spirit to direct my prayerful thoughts to line up with the motivation that was Christ's, that God the Father be glorified in the Son, that I may ask whatsoever in His Name.

And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Phil 4:18-20)