Monday, March 10

Praying in Jesus’ Name

Monday, March 10  

John 16:23

Identity theft is a big problem in the world.  The thief, claiming to speak for someone else or to be someone else, gains enough trust in others (a computer or a person), to deceive the system.  The thief then robs the target, taking what was not in his or her stewardship to take.

What about “identity gift?” We just don’t hear too much about that!

“Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.” (John 16:23) Jesus spoke those words the night before He would be nailed to a cross, die, and be buried. The burial was less than 24 hours from when He spoke those words. Our life, too, can change with breathtaking speed. But Jesus gives us an identity which endures through those changes, even death.

With Jesus’ body in a grave, He knew the disciples would be in a fog of confusion, lacking hope, feeling bewildered and powerless. What they needed was a new name. So He gave them His Name.

Pastor Matthew Harrison, President of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, wrote a book titled Why I Am Joyfully Lutheran about the Identity we have as being born again through the gift of faith and the waters of baptism.  He writes, “This name [God’s Name] was put on me in my baptism, and making the sign of the cross and reciting God’s name is shorthand, as it were, for remembering and confessing all the blessings of Baptism!” (p. 210)

In Baptism, we are adopted into God’s heavenly family, anointed as a priesthood of all believers, and we mysteriously are connected with the death and resurrection of Christ. That last point is worth meditating upon. I have died. I have been raised from the dead. (Col 2:12-14) So what is there to fear? As children of God, we can do what our heavenly Father told us to: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you.” (Ps. 50:15)

When David fought the giant Goliath, he was dwarfed by the Philistine’s weapons. Five smooth stones versus a spear the size of a “weaver’s beam” (roughly 12 feet long and weighing 33 pounds) seemed like sure defeat for David.   But what did David have that Goliath lacked? God’s Name. “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted.  This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you.” (I Sam. 17:45-46)

We face every situation with the same identity, the same confidence, the same Name. Pray in the Name of Jesus.