In Jesus’s Name
6 min read
12 “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
John 14:12-14
As encouraging as these words of Jesus may be, they are also difficult. The words are difficult because we do not see the kinds of signs and wonders that Jesus performed on a regular basis. For sure, it is extremely rare for anyone to witness someone being brought back to life from the dead.
When I first encountered these words and chewed on them for a bit, I could not help but feel the egocentric desire of wanting to “do even greater things than these.” Because of sin, human beings, men especially, have a sense of achieving grandeur.
One sad and dangerous aspect of our human condition is that when people attain a certain measure of success, they tend to experience delusions of grandeur—that is, the feeling that they are really somebody great and important. Of course, in God’s eyes, we are all great and important, because we are His children, but is that good enough for us?
Anyway, we all want to achieve great things. And if God should give us the gift of supernatural signs and wonders, all the better!
But maybe Jesus was not talking to individual Christians. Maybe He was talking to Christians as a whole. And for sure, Christians as a whole have done incredible things in this world. God has done great and supernatural things through Christians throughout history.
Even in our Canvas family, we have seen people saved, people healed, lives transformed, people hungering and thirsting for God’s word, people stepping up to serve the Lord because of His great love for us.
That desire to see and to do great things should motivate us to ask for great things—that is, to pray—in Jesus’s name. To pray in Jesus’s name means to pray according to His purpose, His agenda, and according to His heart.
If I pray that I may be able to accomplish some great thing but if my motivation is for my own personal glory, that is not praying in Jesus’s name.
If I pray for some great thing to happen and it does happen, and I boast that God must have heard MY prayer, that is not praying in Jesus’s name.
But how do I keep myself from such sinful, egocentric attitudes? It’s not easy. This world has grown so accustomed to people promoting themselves that the world practically punishes the humble soul who refuses to self-promote. Of course, the self-promotion must be skillfully done, and we do get skillful at it because we practice it so often.
When my only motivation in my prayers is “that the Father may be glorified in the Son,” that is praying in Jesus’s name. That will be when the things that I do will contribute to the “even greater things” that God will do through His people.
I have seen “great things.” I also believe that I have done “great things.” But the truth is that I am nothing—a sinner in a world full of sinners destined to dust if not but for the grace of God in Christ Jesus. We all need to get over ourselves—beginning with me-myself-and-I.
Father, Show me Your glory. I have seen Your glory, but I desire to see more of Your glory, more of Your power, more of Your Spirit. But protect me and my family and my community from my own ego. Let me do nothing. May You do everything. But I ask—do great things through me and this Canvas family. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
