My purpose for opening this blog is to explore the radical – almost unbelievable – promise from Jesus to do whatever I ask in his name. I don’t know your point of view as you find this, but I would like to think that there is, perhaps, a divine cause for your being here. So, welcome.
A lot of the sayings of Jesus are radical, and challenging to the status quo of any age. And there is a tendency, both in religious and secular circles, to round them off a little, or to force them through our cultural filters. We end up with gaps in our understanding, sort of a contraction of Jesus (“J’sus?" “Jes’s?”) At least, I know I have done this, and so I am generalizing to you!
Now, I need to tell you how I got here. My wife and I have been texting Bible verses to each other, recently, as a way to cheer each other up. We do this, not because we are saintly, but because we have both been going through difficult times, and we have found that it is helpful. We came across the following verse in the Gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 14:
“You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.”
I am not going to tell you that I have never read that verse before. But I have never read it and seen it as an affront to my faith before. My wife asked me if the verse really meant that. I know, for her, that was a rhetorical question. My “filter” has always told me there was a catch. I had to admit that I did not know what the passage meant. I knew what the words meant. I did not know them by experience. I searched the passage for context:
“Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I go to the Father (v. 12).”
Two things jump out:
- The works that he is talking about are the miracles that he presented as evidence that he had come from the Father.
- “Whoever” would seem to include me.
Leaving aside a discussion of “greater works” for now (we will come back to it later as we try to understand the passage), I would like to focus on his promise to do what we ask of him. I intend, through this blog, to begin a kind of faith experiment to explore what the promise might mean in my life. I hope that you might join me, or at least, follow along and see how it turns out. Even if you are not so sure about Jesus, I would love it if you would come along for a little while.
And if you are experiencing the reality of this promise in your life, I would love to hear from you and gain a little bit of encouragement. So, hopefully, it will be my story and maybe your story, too.