Doctrine
"...ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."
John 16:24
Prayer is one of the greatest privileges God has given His children — that we, poor sinners saved by grace, may speak directly with the God who made heaven and earth, and be heard. But prayer is not a matter of saying words into the air, nor of following the traditions of men. The Lord Jesus Christ has shown us a clear and beautiful pattern: we pray to the Father, in the name of the Son, by the help of the Holy Ghost. Let us learn to pray as He taught us.
Consider what prayer really is. The God before whom angels veil their faces invites us — invites us — to come to Him at any hour, with any need, and promises to hear. And we are told to come not trembling and afraid, but boldly.
"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16)
A throne of grace — not of judgment, for the believer, but of grace. This boldness was bought for us at the cross, and it is ours to use.
When the disciples asked the Lord Jesus Christ to teach them to pray, He directed their prayers to the Father.
"...When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name..." (Luke 11:2)
So the pattern the Lord gave is that we address our prayers to God our Father. We come to Him not as to a distant tyrant, but as dear children to a loving Father who delights to give good gifts to those who ask Him.
But how can sinful men approach a holy God at all? Only through a Mediator — one who stands between God and man to bring them together. And there is exactly one.
"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." (1 Timothy 2:5)
There is no other way to the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ said so plainly.
"...I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)
This is why we pray "in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." We do not come in our own name, for we have no standing of our own; we come in His name, on the ground of who He is and what He has done. He Himself opened this new and living way and pressed His people to use it.
"...Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." (John 16:23-24)
To pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is not a magic phrase to be tacked onto the end of a prayer, as though the words themselves had power. It means to come in His authority and on His merit, in union with Him, seeking not our own selfish ends but the Father's glory in the Son.
"And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." (John 14:13)
Picture an ambassador who comes not in his own name but in the name of his king; he is received because of the one he represents. Or picture a cheque drawn upon another's account: it is honoured not because of the one who presents it, but because of whose name is signed upon it. So we present our petitions in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they are honoured for His sake, not for ours.
Our confidence in prayer never rests upon our own goodness — which would leave us always uncertain — but upon the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which has opened the way into God's presence.
"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." (Hebrews 10:19)
On our worst days as much as our best, the way to the Father stands open, because it was opened by His blood and not by our worthiness.
Praying in His name also means praying in harmony with His will. God has not promised to grant every selfish desire, but He has promised to hear every prayer that is according to His will.
"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us." (1 John 5:14)
This guards us from a false view of prayer, as though it were a means of getting our own way. Prayers offered merely to satisfy our lusts are not prayers in His name at all.
"Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." (James 4:3)
The truest prayer bows always to the Father's wisdom, saying with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, "not my will, but thine, be done."
The Word of God sets certain conditions upon prevailing prayer, and we do well to heed them. We must abide in Christ and let His words abide in us.
"If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." (John 15:7)
We must ask in faith, believing.
"...What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." (Mark 11:24)
And we must come with a clean heart, for cherished, unconfessed sin closes the ear of God.
"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." (Psalm 66:18)
This is no cause for despair, but a call to keep short accounts with God, confessing our sins that our fellowship — and our praying — may be unhindered.
We must also come with a forgiving heart toward others, for the Lord Jesus Christ joined our forgiving of others to our own fellowship with the Father.
"And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." (Mark 11:25)
We are weak, and often do not even know what we ought to ask. But we do not pray alone. The Holy Ghost Himself helps us.
"...the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." (Romans 8:26)
Here, then, is the full pattern of Christian prayer, and the whole blessed Trinity is engaged in it: we pray to the Father, in the name of the Son, by the help of the Holy Ghost. What a God we have, who draws so near to hear His children!
Because the way is open and the Father is willing, we are invited to bring Him everything — every care, every fear, every need, great or small.
"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." (Philippians 4:6)
Nothing is too great for His power, and nothing too small for His love. We may cast the whole weight of our cares upon Him.
"Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." (1 Peter 5:7)
And we are to keep on — never giving up, but praying without ceasing, in a lifelong conversation with our Father.
"Pray without ceasing." (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
Sometimes the answer to prayer is delayed, and we are tempted to give up. But the Lord Jesus Christ taught the very opposite — that we should keep praying and never lose heart.
"...men ought always to pray, and not to faint." (Luke 18:1)
Such persevering prayer is never wasted, for the Word of God assures us of its power.
"...The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." (James 5:16)
Weak and stammering though our prayers may be, offered to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, they avail much — for it is not the eloquence of the one who prays, but the worth of the Name in which he comes, that prevails with God.
All this is the birthright of the child of God. But it belongs to those who have come to the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have never trusted Him, the throne of grace is not yet open to you as a Father's throne — but there is one prayer God always hears from a lost sinner: the cry for mercy. Like the publican of old, you may pray even now, "God be merciful to me a sinner."
"...God be merciful to me a sinner." (Luke 18:13)
Trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, and in that moment you become a child of God — and the whole treasury of prayer, in His name, is opened to you forever.
"...ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."John 16:24