What Does It Mean to Pray "In His Name"?

What does it mean to pray in the Name of Jesus? It does not suggest the repetition of a phrase that has no more relationship to the prayer, as a label has to the package it is tied to. Loosely appended to a prayer it does not convert an unholy request to a worthy one. It does not open a door in heaven.

 

"In His Name" means that our prayers must have His sanction or endorsement before God. The use of the term implies that we are praying as Jesus would pray if he was in our place.  "In his name" signifies, In His nature, that is, according to all He is in Himself and all He has accomplished.

Prayer offered "In His Name" or in his stead cannot fail. Prayer offered otherwise will not be successful.

As we give Jesus control of our life, our prayers find the right of way in God's program.

To pray in the Name of Jesus Christ is to recognize that we have no claims on God whatever, that God owes us nothing whatever, that we deserve nothing of our God; but believing what God Himself tells us about Jesus Christ's claim upon Him, we ask God for things on the ground of Jesus Christ's claim upon God. Dr. R. A. Torrey

All we seek in prayer must be for the glory of Jesus. If our prayers depend on us they will never rise very high. All selfish or unworthy desires must be shunned. The spirit of any prayer must be For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.

For our prayers to be successful we must know how to pray in the Holy Spirit. He must pray in and through us. He helps our weakness in prayer and makes intercession to the will of God. We pray in the Spirit, through the merits of Christ, to the Father. To pray in the Spirit means to consciously place ourselves under the Holy Spirit's influence.