In Jesus Name

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

How many times have I ended my prayers with this, nonchalantly. Honestly, before today, I didn't realize the power and the seriousness of this statement at the end of my prayers. In search of the answer, I found this brief snippet on a website that hit what God spoke to my heart as I prayed through these verses this morning.

Some mistakenly apply this verse [John 14:14]believing that saying “In Jesus’ name” at the end of a prayer results in God always granting what is asked for. This is essentially treating the words “in Jesus’ name” as a magic formula. This is absolutely unbiblical!

Praying in Jesus’ name means praying with His authority and asking God the Father to act upon our prayers because we come in the name of His Son, Jesus.

Praying in Jesus' name means the same thing as praying according to the will of God, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him" (1 John 5:14-15). Praying in Jesus’ name is praying for things that will honor and glorify Jesus.

Maybe this is an elementary truth that I just caught on to, but man...it radically changed the way that I looked at my prayers this morning, before I stamped Jesus' name to it. Before I said amen, I thought back through what I had said to God. Did I feel comfortable attaching Jesus' name to it? Did I feel comfortable going to the creator of the universe with te authority of the son he sent to die on the cross for the salvation of the world? Mmmm...a little heavy for 8:30 am...but I love it when God speaks.

...more later--gotta go to work.