“If you ask anything in my name, I will do it”…If you ask anything in my name….If you ask anything in my name….Whether it was these particular words from John 14 or others like them in John’s Gospel, I have spent many more years explaining what the words do not mean rather than thinking about what they mean.
Prayer–conversation with God–is one of the most profound mysteries in Scripture, and at the same time one of God’s simplest gifts. We find ourselves literally without words in his presence, and are even told we don’t know what we ought to pray and so his Holy Spirit intercedes for us. Sometimes we have all kinds of words to say but we are more interested in talking to ourselves than in talking to God.
Perhaps because he is Creator-God, we often decide that there are all kinds of conversations, all kinds of subjects that are not acceptable for prayer. Like our need for political correctness in our own culture and the variety of boundaries we place on our conversations with one another, we often decide that much of life is our business, not God’s. Much of what happens to us and through us is our problem, not God’s. There are certain things that are unworthy of his attention, others that are unspeakable before him.
I have come to believe, however, that the only conversation available to us where nothing is “out of bounds”–no subject is politically incorrect–is conversation with God. He can listen to whatever we have to say–whatever!
Psalm 88 and parts of Job’s speeches bring anger, doubt and cynical pessimism before God, and he can take it. There is no gradation that makes some parts of life “unworthy” or off-limits. Those things others call insignificant–and may seem so to me some other time–are always significant at the moment.
Minor surgery only happens to other people; all of mine are major surgeries. Yes, we will have those reflective moments when we realize how small and petty we have been. There may also be times of disorientation that we think will never end, and only our ability to say that to our heavenly Father will keep us from utter despair.
While there are rules for every other conversation with have, topics and attitudes that are “out of bounds” for one reason or another, the one listener who can handle whatever we have to say is the one who ultimately longs to redeem us from ourselves. Yes, “in my name” affects how God in Christ may respond sometimes. But the only one who can cut off the lines of communication with God is self. God is quite capable of listening to whatever I think I need to say.
What have you talked about with our God, lately?