Daily Reflection

You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.

This verse is readily misused: it can easily lend itself to an almost magical understanding of prayer in which pretty much anything we ask of God can be ours, if only we remember to do the asking in the name of Jesus. What gets left out of that equation is the juxtaposition Christ makes here between the promise of success-in-prayer and the mandate of faithful and fruitful witness with which such success is inextricably linked. In short, one of the great challenges—but also one of the great privileges—of both corporate and personal discipleship is that of aligning one’s prayers with the fruitful life of love to which we have been called in the name, and empowered by the Spirit, of Jesus Christ.

Take from us, dear Friend, all those many things (including the many problematic desires) that might prompt us to misuse Your name, especially but not exclusively in our life of prayer. And then show us how we too, like Your first cohort of disciples, might bear good fruit: the kind that brings genuine healing to our broken world, the kind that brings genuine honour to Your precious name. Amen

Christian Seasons Calendar

Daily Reflection

Sunday, May 5, 2024