What You Should Ask For When You Pray

Jesus said: “Ask anything in my name and you will receive it.”

Anything? Wow! What did he really mean? At first, it’s obvious isn’t it? Anything!

But we must remember all he said here: anything in my name. What does that mean? And what can I really pray for? After we discover what ‘in his name’ means, I will share with you some things we should and should not pray for.

In My Name

What it doesn’t mean

We hear people pray ‘in Jesus’ name’ all the time. We have done it ourselves. We use that as a tag line on everything we pray and it comes from this very passage of scripture. We mean that we are asking in the name of Jesus and we expect to receive what we ask for.

But it is possible to say those words and not be praying in Jesus’ name at all. In fact you can say those words and be praying in the exact opposite of Jesus’ name!

What it means

To pray in Jesus’ name means we pray in the same way he would pray, consistent with everything we know about him. We ask for things we know he would ask for! The model prayer he gave us in Matthew 6 is a good example of how to pray in Jesus’ name.

To pray in Jesus name means our prayers are consistent with who Jesus is.

His nature. Do your prayers reflect the nature of Jesus? Someone confessed to me that she was praying for someone to leave the church because she didn’t like them! That is not a prayer in Jesus’ name!

Think about the nature of Jesus for a minute. He is loving, so much so that he was willing to lay down his life for us. So many are not willing to lay down their lives for others, they are not even willing to lay down their opinions and desires for another. You can’t pray in Jesus name with that attitude.

His compassion. He wants good things for us. You can ask for good things for yourself but be cautioned that God is the one that defines what is good. Jesus is full of grace and mercy. You can ask for his forgiveness and for strength to serve him each day!

Jesus is holy and true. Asking for him to touch you with his holiness and truth is good. Asking him to touch others with holiness and truth is powerful.

Jesus is righteous and just. Eventually, in God’s timing, everything will be made right. Too often, we get caught up in our own sense of righteousness and justice. Asking God to help you define and perceive these things may change your mind!

His mission. Our prayers must reflect the mission of Jesus. Praying in his name means we embrace his desire that those who are lost become found. We pray with the sincere desire that all would experience eternal, abundant life!

His ministry. Praying in his name means we are united with him in the ministry he is engaged in. Jesus is still active in intercession, teaching and healing. Intercession means we lift up those we love to God for his touch in their lives. Intercession takes up a score of different forms. Prayers that reflect his teaching are strong prayers that change lives. And prayers for healing are a form of intercession.

What we should pray for

Before I share what we should not pray for, here are some things we should pray for.

Holy Spirit power so we can serve Jesus with all our strength. The Holy Spirit will effectively sanctify the follower of Jesus so we can be holy and useful for all he asks us to do.

Effective ministry. When we are doing what God asks us to do, it is appropriate to continually ask for his help so we can be the very best we can be!

Love. We are called to love those around us. Honestly, that takes some help from God. Asking him to help us love is fully appropriate!

Salvation for those you love. How many unsaved people do you pray for? Knowing that the only way to the Father is through Jesus, we should be praying for all our family and friends who don’t know him!

Healing. Everyone you know who is sick should be prayed for. We were created to be whole. Not everyone we pray for in this way is healed but it is still very appropriate to pray for healing.

Wisdom.  We all need wisdom to deal with life decisions, relationships and difficult circumstances. Jesus wants us to know what to do in these challenging areas. Asking for wisdom is truly praying in Jesus name!

Spiritual growth. It is God’s will that we all mature and become more like Jesus every day. We have a great responsibility in relation to our spiritual growth but asking for God’s help will make a difference in our growth and maturity.

What we might pray for with a few reservations

Here are some things we might pray for. I know I have prayed for them in one form or another. But we must pray with some reservations because these things may not be God’s will for us and, from a human perspective, they do not fully represent the life of Jesus.

A good day. We all enjoy good days. In heaven, every day will be a good day. However, our definition of a good day may not be the same as God’s! We may find that a miserable day actually does more for us in the long run than a good day! We grow in faith, trust and perseverance in the hard days of life!

Safety. I pray for people’s safety all the time! But following Jesus isn’t always safe! Jesus wasn’t safe. The apostles were not safe. While we should not be reckless with our lives we cannot be sure that it is God’s will that we will always be safe! Following Jesus is risky and not the totally safe path! But I still want God to protect those I love!

Comfort. Like safety, God is far more interest in our character than our comfort. To become the people he wants us to be, we will become uncomfortable. There is an old saying: church is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. There’s a lot of truth to that.

Dream job. So, I was lamenting the other day that I had not landed my dream job – on more than one occasion. However, I am confident that in not landing the dream job, I was following Jesus all the way! Maybe personal failure or shortcomings kept those dream jobs out of my reach or maybe I was striving for something higher – God’s approval!

What we should not ask for

Selfish things. That’s pretty general and I will be more specific but this is the starting point. Remember that God is not your servant. He is the sovereign majesty of the universe. The fact that he hears and answers prayer is a reflection of his nature and not of our worthiness.

Financial wealth. I know that there is a line of teaching that communicates a basic idea that God wants you to prosper financially. In the totality of scripture, that teaching doesn’t really hold up! There is such danger in wealth that I believe God doesn’t want most of his followers to attain wealth. Only a few can be wealthy and still trust God. The rest of us will believe that we are sufficient for everything we face because we have money. We will begin to trust our wealth and possessions and accomplishments instead of God.

Misfortune for others. I know that there are some Psalms that ask for the destruction of enemies; they are called imprecatory Psalms. That said, we can trust God to take care of our enemies. Our frustration  may prompt us to cry out against those who have hurt us but we must carefully keep our prayers filled with love to pray for and not against others.

Get your way. Have you ever asked God to help someone see things your way? Most of us have been guilty of that! Be careful because we often don’t know if our way is the right way. Having our way can lead to disaster. I have observed it and experienced it!

Things to work on your timetable. It is astounding how many times in scripture people had to wait to receive God’s promises! We live in an instant society. We want things now. God wants us to have what we need at the right time. Sometimes it is now, sometimes it’s in days, months or years, sometimes it never!

Your turn

Make your prayer more effective today. Strike a few things off your prayer list and add a few things, too!