In preparation for a series my church is doing on the Lord’s Prayer, I’ve been studying the subject of prayer. I’m not a big fan of rules when it comes to prayer, because it doesn’t seem like prayer needs to be done a certain way in order for it to be considered prayer. The less rules the better. But I do have one rule:
When you pray, do it in Jesus’ Name.
From my vantage point, this is a vital rule for understanding prayer, as well as life. But for it to really make sense we need to go backward: what is prayer?
What is Prayer?
Long before he wrote his wonderful book Prayer, Tim Keller gave a sermon on prayer with a line that immediately jumped out to me: “Prayer is the key to everything you need to do and be in life.” At first, I heard this as hyperbole. Sure, prayer is important, but the key to everything we need to do and be?!? At the very least this minimizes the importance of God’s Word and of the church, or so I thought.
I would imagine you might have a similar reaction to mine. But let’s take a step back to understand prayer.
The poet George Herbert describes prayer as “Gods breath in man returning to his birth.” Tim Keller builds on this by describing prayer as “awe, intimacy, struggle—yet the way to reality.” Norweigan theologian Ole Hallesby says, “Prayer is something deeper than words. It is present in the soul before it has been formulated in words.”
Paul even describes our groanings as prayer in Romans 8:26, saying, “For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
Our basic understanding of prayer is not too broad, but too narrow. Prayer is the list of thanksgivings and petitions we say or think as we go to bed at night, it’s the few moments before we eat a meal, and it’s the moments of silence as we meditate on God’s Word early in the morning, but it is not only those things. Prayer is a way of life for the Christian. It is the soul’s ascent toward the Lord.
With that basic understanding of prayer it comes into view that yes, everything we need to do and be in life flows from prayer!
In Jesus’ Name
With a wider understanding of prayer providing a foundation, now we can consider praying in Jesus’ Name. Before we can apply this to prayer, we need to understand what we mean by being in Jesus’ Name, because this is a theological consideration.
According to Genesis 1 and 2 we were created to be in the presence of the Father, but because of Adam and Eve’s sinful choice and rebellion, the human race was cast out from the presence of God in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). Adam was created to enjoy a flourishing connection with God the Father, but Adam instead refused the Father. Put simply, sin disrupted the fellowship between God and His created children.
In many instances the Bible refers to Jesus as a second Adam, drawing us back into the sinful Garden situation of Genesis 3. Jesus proceeds from the Father’s presence into our world in order to overcome sin, evil, and death through His own sacrifice. His sacrifice leads us, as descendants of the first Adam, back into the presence of the Father. It is by Christ’s death that access to the Father’s presence was obtained for us again.
Through Christ, we can draw near to the presence of God with boldness, like little children. In other words, prayer is a privilege given through the Gospel.
This is why John Calvin says about prayer: “No one has ever carried out prayer with the uprightness that was due…Without this mercy there would be no freedom to pray.”
Without Jesus there is no prayer, because we have no access to the Father without Christ. It is Christ that enables prayer because we have nothing to bring, nor the ability to draw near, on our own. Prayer is only possible in Jesus’ Name.
Australian theologian Graeme Goldsbury says it best: “If the Father always hears the Son, then he always hears those who, in Christ, are his sons.” This is the Gospel’s outworking in prayer. Thanks be to God.
Contending
But this goes far beyond simply the prayers we may offer to God, right? If prayer is a way of living, we only honor the Lord when we live in Jesus’ Name.
The theme of this newsletter is around the subject of contending. We embrace hard things, on purpose. The Contenders are those who seek to embrace discomfort for the sake of Christ’s work within themselves. But it must be said that the true contenders only push forward in Jesus’ Name.
Like Frodo Baggins on the ascent up Mount Doom being carried by Samwise Gamgee, or Sisyphus and his endless pushing of the boulder up the hill, even the most Herculean effort will fall short when taken up through our own power. Yet this kind of hustle-and-conquer mentality embodies the contending posture of our society. As wilderness guru Cameron Hanes says, “If you’re not the hardest-working person you know, then you’re not working hard enough.”
This kind of language should find a willing ear to those wanting to live with a contending posture, but this mentality can easily become its own religion of self-sacrifice.
As contenders in Christ, our hope lies not in our willingness to cope with, endure, and overcome life’s failures, setbacks, and tragedies, but rather, it is the power of God at work in and through us, which molds us into His image through all of life. We take on life as contenders not in our name but through Jesus. It is His work, His Spirit, His life that breathes life into us.
What does this have to do with prayer? Let me end with a story.
During a speaking engagement, R.A. Torrey was confronted by a man who struggled with a lack of desire to pray due to an ongoing unanswered prayer. He followed all the rules for prayer and lived an obedient life, yet nothing changed, the prayer went unanswered. How could this be?
Torrey recognized that the man was actually praying in his own name rather than in Christ. Sure, he likely ended all his prayers correctly by saying “in Jesus’ Name” but his ultimate aim was his own.
You can follow the prayer rules, but if your aim is your own your prayer will not reach the Father. You can seek to contend and seem to succeed but only what is done in Jesus’ Name will last.
Torrey spoke to a crowd following the question from the man: “We must give up any thought that we have any claims upon God…Jesus Christ has great claims on God, and we should go to God in our prayers not on the ground of any goodness in ourselves, but on the ground of Jesus Christ’s claims.”
Let us contend, in Jesus’ Name!
I want prayer to be the way I do life.
Tozer says “We in the kingdom of God chose for our motto, ‘In everything prayer’ because we have already admitted we cannot do anything on our own. “
I think ‘In Jesus name’ is that admission. It’s a surrender of our will to the will and glory of our Father.