Aligned Prayer

John 16:23-24 “And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”

I read that this condition for answered prayer and its resulting fullness of joy is not just a formula with which to end a prayer. “In my name” implies representing Him and what He stands for, so that our prayer could truly be His prayer as well. For example, our prayer must be in His will. 1 John 5:14-15 tells us, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, 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 the petitions that we have asked of Him.” When our will is aligned will the will of God, then God will give us the desires of our heart.

The writer explains that we need also to recognize that God’s great purpose in creation is of higher priority than our own personal desires, so this should be of first order in our prayers. Jesus said in Luke 11:2 “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We can also pray for our own needs, of course, especially for God to “deliver us from evil”, the closing request in His model prayer.

James 1:5-6 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.”

It is good to seek God’s wisdom in all our decisions and undertakings, so that we can be confident we are indeed in His will, but our request for such guidance must be sincere and in willingness to act on His answer. And it should be obvious that the request be made with a clear conscience before God. Psalm 66:18 tells us, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me”. But when we are indeed confident that we are praying “in His name” with all that this implies, then we should pray earnestly, for “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16), and when the answer comes—as it will, in God’s time—then our joy indeed will be full! 

Have a blessed day.