Praying “In Jesus’ Name” by Janice

I’ve never quite known what this phrase, often mindlessly tacked onto our prayers, means. I still don’t. But I have spent a few hours researching it and think I understand it a little more than I did before.

I remember being told by my mother to stop in our little country store in Southern Kansas after school to pick up a few groceries. Fern, the store owner, kept a spiral notebook, and at the top of each page, she wrote with a pencil the name of the head of household of each family who shopped there. When Mom or Daddy shopped, they would say “Just put it on our bill,” Fern would write down the amount owed, and when he had the money, Daddy would pay it. When I bought groceries, I said the same thing. Fern knew I was shopping “in Daddy’s name” and she knew what Daddy or Mom usually needed. One time I decided to throw in a Milky Way candy bar. She looked over her glasses at me and said something like, “How about you take this back to the candy counter, and I’ll give you a penny sucker?”

We know that, like Fern, God does not always give us what we ask for. I know I can bring my total, honest self to God, no matter how crazy I may be at any given moment. But I’m very cautious about asking God to do specific things because I don’t know what God’s will is. Jesus gave us several examples of how to pray. Before He was crucified, He asked that He not have to go through with it, but added, “However, not My Will but Yours.” By giving us what we now call The Lord’s Prayer, we ask that God’s will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Maybe praying “in Jesus’ name” is like that. If that’s the case, perhaps we should begin rather than end our prayers with “In Jesus’ name.” Sorta like when Tiff begins her sermons with “Among the words spoken here, may Your Word be spoken and heard.” I know for sure that “in Jesus’ name” is not to be taken lightly. It means I am praying, as best I know how, for what Jesus would want. And if it isn’t, then I want the Will of God to prevail.