(Verse 13) - Many think that this promise is specifically given to the Apostles and only for us by way of application. The problem I have with that is that it is often used as an excuse why a given passage doesn't hold much significance for us. The trouble is that every bit of the New Testament was written directly to someone and if we follow this line of thinking then none of it is really ''for" us. Obviously, this is not so.

In My Name is equivalent to on my account or for my sake. This carries two senses. The first is regarding our intent. Our intent in asking must be to serve His purposes. It is not simply that we ought to ask what He would ask; though that is certainly true. It is that our intention in asking must be to serve His plan and purpose. We often ask, with our own plan and desire in mind. This is not as it should be. James tells as that very often we do not receive answers to prayer because we "ask amiss" in order to consume it upon our lusts. This is simply another way of saying this self-same thing. We must ask for the right reasons.

The second carries an almost legal, proxy idea to it. The above accepted as a given principle; we have the great privilege of acting in Christ's stead, as His representatives in the conducting of His affairs on earth in His absence. What a great privilege! What a profound honor! What a grave responsibility!

There is actually a third idea here as well. That is the idea of submission to the plan and intent of God, Who has designed all to function, rooted in the work and merit of Christ. When we ask for a thing in Jesus' name, there is implied the idea that we believe it is that which God desires and which is a part of his plan.  Submission to that plan is taken for granted.  We cannot ask for that which is not in submission to his plan and still expect God to bless an answer our request.  This is only reasonable.  All answered prayer is rooted in our relationship with Christ which, in turn, rests firmly upon the imputed merit of Christ.  Apart from that, we have no standing with God, and thus, no basis upon which to ask.

The reason why we are able to ask in His Name bears saying. It us for three reasons. First it is because we have been adopted and placed as sons, full sons, in the family of God.  We do not ask as strangers.  Nor do we ask purely as subjects of a Monarch asking a boon of their King.  We are the King's children!  That family relationship that we have with God bears great privilege, perhaps the greatest of which is access, freely, to the Father.

Second, it is because His merit secures the privilege of access and answer for His children.  As we mentioned before, it is the imputed righteousness of Christ that gives us our standing before God and allows us to enter his presence with confidence.  We must remember this and keep it always in the front of our minds because it is the sole reason that we are able to enter boldly into the presence of the Holy God of the universe without being consumed.

Third, it is because we are His friends!  This wonderful concept boggles the mind.  We are Christ's friends!  Not in any kind of sloppy or course way.  But in the purest and most wonderful way we are friends of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We can ask in His Name because friends can call on friends and ask them to do things for one another.  By the way, does that not also mean that Christ can call on us to do things for him?

That I will do is a statement intended to reassure us and give us confidence and may be taken as a promise.  God always lives up to His Word.  He is ever faithful and reliable.  What Christ says in His Word is utterly reliable and dependable.  This is a promise that we can claim an rest on in times of great trouble and need. There is nothing that is beyond Christ's ability to accomplish in answer to this promise. He has shown, prior to this, that He has power over all realms of life. Nothing that we ask, in line with the above truth, is beyond His ability to do.

Note that it is Christ Who does the work here. It is not us doing it or even we doing it using His power.  There are many who would tell us that it is we who do these things by wielding the power of God and shaping it by our words.  This is never the case.  Just as it is always the righteousness of Christ that pleads for us before the throne of God, so also is the power of Christ that acts for us in our daily affairs.  It is always God acting for us and on our behalf and never our own ability or our own power.

That the Father May Be Glorified In the Son speaks of the intent of this promise. It is not given that we might get stuff to make us happy. The charge and intent of the promise is that the purpose and glory of the Father be served as He has set that purpose forth regarding the Son.  Now, it is certainly true that these things do make us happy.  God is concerned that we be content and happy in life.  But that is not the primary concern of his mind and his purpose in anything.  His primary concern is his own glory.  That was Christ's main concern as well.  It must also be our main concern.

How do those facts apply to my life?:

The concern for the overriding glory of God must be at the center of all our thoughts and minds as we walk through life.  This serves to purposes.  First it places us in line with and in submission to the teaching of the word of God, certainly the best place to be.  Further, and more practically, it is the place where we will see our prayers answered.  It is when we are more concerned with seeing the glory of God held up before man then we are with getting the stuff that we want that we will be in the place that God will bless and answer.