It’s Who You Know

 

	“You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
	—John 14:13

Precious Ramotswe, the owner of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, in one of her charming tales, tells of walking to school as a child in Botswana, Africa. ¹ The trip took all of an hour, except when she could get a ride on a mule-drawn water cart that occasionally passed that way.

The other children would enviously watch her clamber up on the driver’s seat beside the man who had worked with her father as a young man. The children would ask why Precious could ride and they couldn’t. Precious, all of eight years old, overwhelmed with embarrassment would ask the driver why he treated her specially.

“You are the daughter of Obed Ramotswe,” said the driver. “He is a great man. That is why you are riding up here.” At that age Precious knew her father was a wonderful man, and she adored him, but she had no idea of how highly people thought of him.

Reading that story reminded me of the special place we hold in God’s heart—those of us who have been called and have received redemption through Jesus. We hold so many privileges because of our relation to Him. When we use His name in prayer, in the way He intended, things begin to happen.

However, like Precious Ramotswe and her father Obed, even as we display appropriate adoration for our Heavenly Father, we know that the high honor of using His name holds with it the responsibility to ask wisely.

Some Bible teachers have said when we read about His “name,” we should really understand that to mean His “nature,” as well. We ask “according to His nature.”

Those who ask in Jesus’ name are those who want to represent Him in this world and, according to John 14, want to do even greater things than He did while on earth. I don’t think Jesus had in mind that if we ask for diamond bracelets or popularity that He would count those as legitimate requests!

Not only should we pray according to God’s will, as much as we know it, we can claim the promises He gives us in His word. Therefore, we need to spend time knowing Him in order to know His nature and His name.

How earnestly do we pray? God also requires earnest, devoted, heartfelt prayer of us. The dictionary defines “earnest” as “resulting from or showing sincere and intense conviction.” This definition tracks very well with God’s instruction through the Prophet, recorded in Jeremiah 29:13:

“You shall seek me, and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.”

Earnest prayer has an important role to play in ministering to people’s needs. Acts 12:5 reports that:

“ Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.”

God also hears the prayers of those who obey Him. 1 John 3:21-22 tells us:

“Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.”

So, we have a great responsibility in prayer. We should not pray casually, nor without understanding God’s will. Neither should we pray rote repetitions, as Jesus mentioned in His “Sermon on the Mount.” In Matthew 6:7-8, Jesus instructs his disciples:

“ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

There it is! Jesus refers to such repetitious prayer as “babbling!”

Yes, because we are sons and daughters of God through Jesus, we have great privileges. We should be grateful and we should pray, understanding the responsibility that privilege carries with it.

Praise be to God!

______________________

1 Story from Smith, Alexander McCall. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built. New York: Pantheon Books/Random House. © 2009.