Bible Study Notes: Prayer Pt. 2 - In Jesus' Name?

Prayer Part Two “In Jesus’ Name?”

The chief end of humans:
According to the world––To satisfy oneself and demand acceptance of others while pursuing it.
According to the Bible––To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

When God created the garden, Adam and Eve walked with God, enjoying communion and fellowship to the Creator's praise. This relationship ended when Satan tempted Adam, and Eve with what? The ability to fulfill their desires and will. Satan offered them equality with God to fulfill their own will. From the fall until now, all humans naturally desire to overpower God with their desires. There is only one reason we would ever attempt such a reckless feat; we are blinded to the truth. Satan doesn’t want us to know that God's will is for our greatest good. He loves us perfectly and has promised to give us every good and perfect gift according to his will, but we are so easily blinded by this world’s offers as Adam and Eve were in the garden.
Paul tells the churches that he has one constant for them. It is so essential that it is his continuous petition:

Col. 1:9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

To be filled would indicate there is no room for our will. God’s will would consume our hearts and minds. Examining your prayers over the last year is a straightforward way to see if this is true of our own lives. Have they been more concerned about bringing God glory and being satisfied in him? Or do our prayers focus on our gain and protection, giving no thought to what God would desire of us?

QUESTION: What are your thoughts about Col 1:9 and Paul’s desire for believers? How would you evaluate your prayers compared to Paul’s desires?

Prayer is always connected to the will of the Father. Here are two examples from Scripture to help us understand the purpose and nature of prayer.

Psa. 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

If we are finding our joy in the Lord, we will not be seeking to fulfill it outside of our relationship with him. Therefore, our requests will not be based upon our flesh but upon this relationship with God. God can promise to grant all requests because they will not be, as James says, “to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3).

The other famous passage often quoted is found in John 14:

John 14:13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
John 14:14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

What are our requests connected to? “That the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Jesus is again pushing us back to praying with the will of the Father in our hearts to glorify God and enjoy him forever. In Psalms, we find our delight in God. Our delight fuels our requests. Jesus then helps us see that the desires of our prayer when asking of him is so that God would be praised through our requests.

To summarize these two passages––if you need something to help us be satisfied in Christ or bring glory to Christ, ask for anything, and it will be given to you. God’s will is our greatest good. Therefore, we should always be concerned with God's will being fulfilled in our lives.

QUESTION: How does this help shape your prayers in the future?

1John 5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
1John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
1John 5:15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

John again gives us absolute confidence in our time of need before the Father, but what is the one key that unlocks this storehouse of answered prayer? God’s will is that we glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. Paul's greatest desire for the church was that they would find joy and satisfaction in Jesus.

2Th. 1:11 To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you
worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power,
2Th. 1:12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

QUESTION: When we struggle to pray that God is glorified in our requests, what can we do to help each other find the truth of God’s promises?

Praying in Jesus' name?

John 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
John 14:13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
What are Jesus' requirements?

1) To believe in who he is
2) To do the works he is doing

To pray in the name of Jesus is to claim that your requests would be in good standing with the person, reputation, and desires of the one you are claiming. Upon the authority and reputation of Jesus, I make this request to the Father, who said you would grant it. Are we sure we could pray our prayers using these instructions?

Lord, according to the reputation, will, and desire of Jesus, could you make my stock go up?
Lord, according to the reputation, will, and desire of Jesus, could you help me get a pay raise?
Lord, according to the reputation, will, and desire of Jesus, could you help us buy this new vacation home?

Does this change the way we think about what we request? Some of these are not wrong and could bring glory to the Father, but we can quickly see how our prayers are NOT connected to the person we are claiming our access to. We have access to the Father because of what Christ did for us. We come by the name and reputation of Christ. Therefore, we can come with boldness asking for mercy when we sin,3 and grace when we lack wisdom. But when we ask for something other than these two requests, what is our desire, and what are we attempting to accomplish?

This Sunday, we will look at this in-depth when the disciples asked Jesus, “would you teach us to pray?” What did Jesus begin teaching them first about prayer?

Matt. 6:9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Matt. 6:10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

We are always taking our prayers to the Father with his revealed will in our hearts as we make our requests known.
QUESTION: How should we handle unanswered prayers with what we learned in this lesson?
QUESTION: Using Paul as our example, how should we pray for each other? What should be our greatest desire for our family members in Christ?

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PRAISE, PRAYER, AND CONFESSION:
What can you offer to the Father in praise? What is a sin you need to confess?
What is a burden we can carry?
What can we take to our Father in prayer?