David Bahn – Reflections

John 15:12-17

[Jesus says,] “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”

It is apparently a new experiment in a handful of other retail establishments: you pay whatever you believe the product is worth. According to Wikipedia, “In some cases, a minimum (floor) price may be set, and/or a suggested price may be indicated as guidance for the buyer. The buyer can also select an amount higher than the standard price for the commodity.” I heard that even some Starbucks stores have experimented with the concept. I doubt it will catch on widely; too many people would likely take untoward advantage of the opportunity to get something for nothing.

Jesus seems to promise such an open-ended opportunity when he says that “the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.” The promise is quite generous: “whatever” is a wide-open word. There is a significant phrase attached to this promise. The promise is for those who ask in Jesus’ name. The importance of those words are beyond a sort of magic incantation that we tag onto the end of our prayers. TO pray in Jesus’ name is to pray as though he himself is praying. That would certainly shape our words and desires.

Just as one would be disinclined to take advantage of a restaurant owner whom we respect and whose food is well prepared and tasty; so would anyone embraced by Jesus’ love and who embraces Jesus’ promises be unwilling to take advantage of Jesus’ blank-check promise regarding answered prayer. It’s a promise of a loving God who has been taken advantage of already from the earliest of time. But he is the God who has redeemed us and changes the hearts of those who have spurned his gifts and sought to take advantage of his grace.

If your best friend handed you a blank check and told you that you could use it however you wish how would you respond? Our calling is to use God’s gifts and Jesus’ promises to bring glory to him. How does that shape your prayers and your desires which you ask God to provide?