"In My Name"

"If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it" (John 14:14).

Have you ever tried to put your prayers in writing? Oh, not the Lord's Prayer or some other memorized bit of verse that you use for a prayer now and then, but have you ever tried to write down the things that you want to pray for?

Well, Beth started to write hers down one day and before she got half way through with it she crumpled up the paper and threw it away. It read just like a Christmas list! She was asking God to help her collect things she thought she needed for a trip she was planning to take. She wanted tennis shoes, bobby sox, sweat shirt, a purse, dress-up clothes for the evening. The girl was so embarrassed with what she wrote that she felt she could never face God again.

But didn't Christ tell us that whatever we asked for in his name, he would see to it that we got it? Yes, he did. But he put in three little words there that make all the difference in the world: "In my name."

When we ask for a thing in Jesus' name we aren't asking for frills and baubles. When we bring Jesus' name into our prayers we realize that prayer is a serious business. We can't be selfish and think only of our own needs when we include Jesus in our conversation with God.

Is it wrong to ask God for new clothes, then? No. Not at all. But when we ask God for something, we must be absolutely sure that it is the right thing and not just something that happened to hit our fancy as we were making up the list. We cannot ask for anything but the necessary things when we ask in Jesus' name.

Give us this day, O God, only what we need. In Christ's name.