We have email now-a-days. Before the message of an email is read and sometimes at the end there is the information of who sent the email. Things are so automatic these days.
Have you ever hand written a letter? I guess I am speaking to a certain generation here. However, for all those who have penned a hand-written letter we all made sure to sign our name, sometimes with affection, other times with professionalism, and other times with neutrality - at the bottom of the letter. We identified ourselves for any information provided, requests made, or clarifications needed. Whatever the purpose of the letter we distinguished ourselves with our signature.
There is a similarity with prayer. There is an addressing of the person one is writing, the body of the letter, then the signature. The difference with prayerful communication with God is that the body of our prayers contains life situations and circumstances that Christ has victory over. So, when we end our prayer or verbal letter to God we sign it in the name who is our Mediator (
1 Timothy 2:5), our Intercessor (
Romans 8:34) who has paid the price to answer our call
in His timing. Such an ending might sound like or even be written - "
In Jesus' Name", "
In the Name of Jesus", or "
In the name of Jesus Christ I pray, Amen."
The use of His Signature, verbal or written, at the end of our prayers is a seal that we place on all we have said to God that reveals our trust in His leadership of our lives and provision for it. This should make us stop and think more about what is in the body of our prayers since His Name is going to be at the end of our beseeching. So, my instruction to us today is to pause next time we start to pray and especially before we end our prayer to make sure we make proper use of God's "John Hancock".
Comments
Post a Comment