That the Father May Be Glorified in the Son

"Whatever you ask in my name, this will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." John 14:13 ( ESV)

Too many times in our modern, Christian way of thinking, we take this verse to mean if I just tag my prayer with "in Jesus' name" God will give me what I ask for. Then we get upset because God didn't give us what we want.

As I look at the prayers of Jesus and the disciples and Paul, they were not the same kind of prayers we have a tendency to pray. Often prayers today are self-centerd prayers that focus on getting. That was a pattern of mine for a long time.

Sure I prayed for church and friends and the sick but I always got to the real reason of my prayer soon, and that was me...what I needed or wanted without much concern for what God might think I needed or should have. I didn't think much about glorifying God or Jesus.

Jesus prayed for unity and love among believers, for the Father to be glorified, for future generations to know Him. He did ask, on the night before His torture, if there was any other way and when the Father said no, Jesus got up and went to the cross. And as He was dying, Jesus prayed that his enemies be forgiven.

When Peter and John were threatened by the religious leaders for preaching salvation through faith in Jesus, they went back to the other disciples rejoicing. They didn't ask God to zap their tormentors or to put themselves in a place where the people would be nice to them. No, they asked God for boldness to continue and for God to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Jesus.

Paul prayed with much thankfulness for the faithfulness of the churches. Most of the letters he wrote to the churches came while he was in chains in a dungeon somewhere. And he was not praying for his freedom but rather that men would come to know Christ because of his imprisonment. When he was in prison, he sang hymns of praise and didn't just walk away when the shackles fell off so his jailer could come to faith in Jesus.

I believe with all my heart that God still answers prayers and works in wondrous ways to glorify His name. But I also believe if we don't see a lot of Him it is because we are not asking for what is on God's heart. "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." James 4:3

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will act."  Psalm 37:4-5 (ESV)