Rubbing the lamp, a vain repetition, or WDJD
Praying "in the name of Jesus". We read, and are taught;
There are those that teach "the plain and simple" understanding of this. God wants to make you happy, so all you really have to do is pray hard enough for long enough in Jesus name, and really believe it will come true, and God will give us what our greedy hearts think they want.
Hey, just what do you think "full joy" is? Isn't it getting everything we ever wanted? I know that I was very happy after I got that big bag full of candy on Halloween. Funny though, I wasn't very happy the next day, when I was mysteriously ill (after gorging myself on all that candy... I'm sure that had nothing to do with it!) Thank God that He loves us so much that He usually won't let us have our hearts desire. You might not have this problem, but my wicked little greedy heart wants what it thinks is good. Fortunately, like our parents, He usually holds back that bag of Halloween goodies, and lets us have them a little at a time so that we may enjoy them. (If we don't grab them and stuff them in our mouths and then complain that we haven't gotten any lately, while we are still chewing.)
Of course, once we grow in the Lord, we understand that God actually changes the desires of our hearts, so that we begin to want "the God things" for our lives instead of what we might in the moment consider "good". After having a few overindulged belly aches, we might even cooperate with the careful distribution of goodies. But, I know this is probably just me, then we get jaded in our prayers. God's going to give me "my daily bread", the essentials that I need to live. "In the name of Jesus" becomes that tag at the end so everyone know that they can join you in the "amen" if they so desire. It becomes a kind of closing phrase, that lets everyone know that either you are finally winding down from a deeply spiritual (long winded and excessively verbose) prayer, or that you are "so good" (so self-righteous) that you only need to make a short and to the point prayer.
In the time that Jesus walked the earth, and in the culture in which he lived, (and even moreso before that) a person's name was reflective of his character. Jesus renamed two people to better reflect their characters. Jesus name (Ye Shua, or God Saves) should be filled with the content of his character as described in the Bible. Or in other words, when we pray, and ask for things "in Jesus name" we should be asking for thing that Jesus would want or would want us to have. "Not my will, but Your Will be done!"
(WDJD = What Did Jesus Do)
Tag(s):prayer
And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.And we are often very, very wrong in our understanding of this!
(John 16:23-24 KJV)
There are those that teach "the plain and simple" understanding of this. God wants to make you happy, so all you really have to do is pray hard enough for long enough in Jesus name, and really believe it will come true, and God will give us what our greedy hearts think they want.
Hey, just what do you think "full joy" is? Isn't it getting everything we ever wanted? I know that I was very happy after I got that big bag full of candy on Halloween. Funny though, I wasn't very happy the next day, when I was mysteriously ill (after gorging myself on all that candy... I'm sure that had nothing to do with it!) Thank God that He loves us so much that He usually won't let us have our hearts desire. You might not have this problem, but my wicked little greedy heart wants what it thinks is good. Fortunately, like our parents, He usually holds back that bag of Halloween goodies, and lets us have them a little at a time so that we may enjoy them. (If we don't grab them and stuff them in our mouths and then complain that we haven't gotten any lately, while we are still chewing.)
Of course, once we grow in the Lord, we understand that God actually changes the desires of our hearts, so that we begin to want "the God things" for our lives instead of what we might in the moment consider "good". After having a few overindulged belly aches, we might even cooperate with the careful distribution of goodies. But, I know this is probably just me, then we get jaded in our prayers. God's going to give me "my daily bread", the essentials that I need to live. "In the name of Jesus" becomes that tag at the end so everyone know that they can join you in the "amen" if they so desire. It becomes a kind of closing phrase, that lets everyone know that either you are finally winding down from a deeply spiritual (long winded and excessively verbose) prayer, or that you are "so good" (so self-righteous) that you only need to make a short and to the point prayer.
In the time that Jesus walked the earth, and in the culture in which he lived, (and even moreso before that) a person's name was reflective of his character. Jesus renamed two people to better reflect their characters. Jesus name (Ye Shua, or God Saves) should be filled with the content of his character as described in the Bible. Or in other words, when we pray, and ask for things "in Jesus name" we should be asking for thing that Jesus would want or would want us to have. "Not my will, but Your Will be done!"
(WDJD = What Did Jesus Do)
Tag(s):prayer
posted by Bryan at 5:59 AM
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