Reflecting on John 16:16-24“Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” (John 16:23)
I have asked many things through the years that I did not receive.
The ‘name it and claim it’ thinking doesn’t work, nor do I think it should.
The key to this is what it means to ‘ask in My Name’.
Jesus has been given the Name that is above all names (Philippians 2:9).
The only name I know that matches this is God’s Name given to Israel.
In Exodus 34:6-7 we learn what that Name means: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” (Exodus 34:6-7)
To ask in Jesus’s Name is to ask things consistent with God’s nature.
Our requests will be in the Spirit of humble, gracious, compassionate love.
Jesus followers will seek and desire the most loving things, and this God will always do.
What if the most loving thing for God to do is to say ‘no’ or ‘not yet’ or ‘not that way’.
God said ‘no’ to Jesus at the cross, and it was the most loving thing to do.
I cling to this hope, that God does what God does (even the hard stuff) in love.
It doesn’t always make sense to me, but I hang my hope on this promise!
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, if God is cruel, capricious, uncaring or unreliable, then life has no hope. You have assured us and shown us that not even suffering and death can separate us from God's love. I cling to this hope: God's love is always YES and AMEN, no matter what happens!