Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the highest heavens.
….You have done such wonderful things.
….Who can compare with you, O God? Psalm 71:19 NLT

John 16:23-28 (<<click here to read the passage)

There are so many simple things that we learn as children which drive home many important points of truth.

The prayer I and my sister repeated as children at mealtime was,

God is great
God is good
Let us thank Him
For our food
By his hands
we all are fed
Thank you for
Our daily bread

Anybody with any church connection as a child at all probably committed this song to memory,

Jesus loves me—this I know,
For the Bible tells me so;
Little ones to him belong,
They are weak, but he is strong.

Yet there are other things that early on became a habit, and for many, we continue to do those things even today. For example, how many of us conclude our times of prayer with the phrase, In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

I couldn’t find where the God is Great prayer came from and Jesus Loves Me has a very interesting story of origin that I might delve into at a later time. Maybe you’ve never realized it but the closing of our prayers in Jesus’ name came from the mouth of Jesus Himself! In today’s passage, Jesus said,

In that day you will not [need to] ask Me about anything. I assure you and most solemnly say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name [as My representative], He will give you. Until now you have not asked [the Father] for anything in My name; but now ask and keep on asking and you will receive, so that your joy may be full and complete. vs23-24

Whatever we ask the Father in Jesus’ name, He will give us!

We learned this at an early age from others praying the same thing because it is the core mindset of the family of believers. It is not a magic incantation. It is not attempting to get the genie out of the lamp. It is requesting the Father’s action because of our relationship with His Son. Because we are reconciled with Jesus, we can go straight to the Father – no middleman required!

But we must keep in mind that it is far more than flipping out our wish list with the expectation that our every request will be fulfilled. It is all done in the encompassing love of God’s will.

Verse 27 further expounds upon why the Father will respond to our prayers, for He surely has in the past and surely will in the future!

For the Father Himself [tenderly] loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from the Father.

Once again, we circle around and find ourselves in the loving arms of our Father and His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Oct 7th, 2021, Thurs, 5:45 pm