Praying to God can be difficult. When we manage to close our eyes and bow our head, our heart is already looking for the exit. It feels awkward and mechanical. Our mind races and are not sure what to say. It can feel more like solitude with my thoughts than a real conversation with God. We wonder if we here to talk with God or just to present our list, say the right words, and hope something happens. That’s why, for a lot of us, prayer only shows up at church, before meals, or in a crisis. We naturally gravitate toward approaching God like a system, not a Person. And when God doesn’t fix the situation the way we imagined we quietly conclude that prayer isn’t very effective.
Why is it that the one-time most people pray is when life starts to unravel? Because we want something that will emotionally stabilize us and help us make sense of our crisis. We crave peace and stability, not just because we’re emotional, but because we need it. The world keeps shifting, relationships change, jobs aren’t secure, health falters, and even our own minds can betray us. So, we reach for quick fixes that don’t last, doing damage control, or looking for distractions. But what if the answer isn’t found in calming the world outside of us, but in re-centering ourselves on the God who never changes?
Prayer isn’t just a last resort when life falls apart; it’s a daily lifeline that draws us back to God. It’s more than solitude with my thoughts; it’s communion with the Father through the Son. Jesus didn’t just teach His disciples how to pray; He modeled a life of prayer that kept Him centered in the Father’s will. And now, in John 14, He’s preparing His disciples for chaos. Jesus is going away, and their world is about to be turned upside down. But instead of giving them a self-help strategy to cope with difficult times, Jesus gives them the privilege of prayer.
True prayer is a privilege because it shifts our focus back on to Christ.
John 14:12 NASB “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.
Jesus begins with “Truly, truly,” which is His way of calling attention. What He’s about to say is meant to bring them comfort and focus them on what’s coming. Then He says, “He who believes in Me”, anyone who places their trust in Him, not just the apostles. This promise is not limited to a special class of super Christians. It’s a promise to all believers that “The works that [Jesus] does, [believers] will do also.” But what does that mean? Jesus healed people of physical, mental, and spiritual ailments. He demonstrated power over the natural world. He supplied resources in miraculous ways. He raised people from the dead.
Is Jesus saying that every believer will cure the sick and raise the dead? Some interpret it that way. Some weaponize this verse to mean that if you’re not performing signs and wonders, you lack faith or power. They twist a text meant to encourage weak, anxious disciples and turn it into a measuring stick for false spiritual superiority. But Jesus’ miracles were never done for show. They were meant to point people to the arrival of His kingdom and the truth of the gospel. And those works will continue, not through parlor tricks, but through the Spirit-empowered witness of His people. But then He says…
“And greater works than these he will do.” Jesus is not saying these works will be more miraculous in nature. How could anyone compete with Jesus’ miracles? The works His followers do will be greater in scope, in clarity, and in redemptive power. His earthly ministry was limited to one region and one people. But after His resurrection and ascension, He would pour out the Holy Spirit, and the gospel would go global. These greater works would not flow from human greatness, but from Christ’s exaltation. And “because [He has gone] to the Father,” His Spirit now works through every believer, calling spiritually dead people to life, and building His church across the world. That is the greater work. It’s not about drawing crowds with spectacles but drawing sinners to the cross through Spirit-empowered witness. This work continues today through ordinary Christians who trust Him and walk in obedience. If you want to see God work through you , you must…
Trust Jesus to do greater works through you.
Greater works aren’t about you, your giftedness, or your personality. They’re about the Lord expanding His reach through your trust and obedience to Him. Our Lord isn’t trying to burden us with a performance standard we can’t meet. He’s inviting us into a mission that He is still empowering. The promise isn’t, “Be amazing.” The promise is, “I’m not done working.” Through your witness, your prayers, your service, yes, your ordinary obedience, Jesus continues the work He began. Trust means believing that He is still working, not just through the apostles or pastors, but through you. Not because you’re impressive, but because He is exalted. You may not feel qualified. You may feel like you’ve failed more times than you’ve followed through. But this verse isn’t here to depress you, it’s here to lift your eyes to the risen Christ, and remind you that He’s still building His kingdom, one act of faith at a time.
So how will Jesus do these greater works through us? What is Jesus’ method? What’s the connection point between our weakness and His power? Prayer. But not just any kind of prayer. Jesus says,
John 14:13 NASB “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
When we initially hear Jesus offer to do “whatever we ask” our natural reflex is to think about the biggest obstacles standing in the way of our personal goals. If we are not careful, prayer becomes a way to leverage divine power to serve our agenda instead of submitting to His. The problem with this reflex is that it assumes that we know what is best for us. But when it comes to the deepest needs of our soul and the long arc of our story, we don’t see clearly. We’re limited, emotionally reactive, and easily swayed by fear or desire. What feels like the most urgent prayer request to us may not be the most important. What looks like an obstacle might be God’s mercy. What we call a setback may be the only path to real growth. And if we are honest, we’ve all had prayer requests that, in hindsight, we’re thankful God didn’t grant.
Jesus makes it clear that the goal of answered prayer is not ultimately our relief, our provision, or our success. It is “that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” We find our ultimate relief, provision, or success when God is most glorified in us. The word “glory” in Scripture is often tied to the idea of weight, something solid, substantial, gravitational. God is not lightweight. He is not peripheral. He is the center of all things. And when He is not at the center of our lives, the weight of everything else starts to pull us apart.
Have you ever had a ceiling fan that was out of balance? If one blade is slightly heavier or warped, the whole unit wobbles. It might seem fine at first, but the longer it spins off-center, the more unstable it becomes. That’s what life is like when we build around anything other than God. The imbalance doesn’t just make noise, it makes everything else feel off, even when you can’t explain why.
Or think about a vehicle with an unbalanced tire. You can have a powerful engine and a perfectly smooth road, but if one tire is off, the whole ride becomes exhausting. It shakes. It wears you down. That’s what happens when something other than God sits as the center of your life. You were built to run with the weight of His glory at the center. Without it, the wear and tear shows up fast.
We may say we believe in God, but in practice, our lives often revolve around something else entirely. When we micromanage conversations, schedules, and people, what we’re really worshiping is control. When we obsess over how others see us and feel crushed by criticism, our god is approval. When we retreat into scrolling, binge-watching, or drinking to escape the weight of life, we’re not just tired, we’re turning to comfort as a refuge. When our sense of worth rises and falls with how we perform or what we produce, we’ve made success our savior. And when we constantly feel the pressure to hold everything together ourselves, we’re bowing to the god of self-reliance. These aren’t just personality quirks or coping mechanisms. They’re functional gods, false centers, that push the true God to the margins. And like a ceiling fan with a warped blade or a tire out of balance, the wobble may start small… but eventually, it shakes everything out of order.
God didn’t design us to orbit our lives around control, approval, or success. He designed us to orbit around Him, to find our meaning, stability, and joy in His glory. Scripture says we were created for His glory (Isaiah 43:7), and our lives only make sense when He is at the center. That’s why prayer isn’t just about presenting our requests, it’s about re-centering our hearts. When we come to God in prayer, we’re not just asking Him to fix things. We’re stepping back into alignment with the purpose for which we were made. We’re saying, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” That’s what it means for the Father to be glorified in the Son: not just that He answers us, but that He reshapes us, so that how we live and what we long for reflect the greatness of who He is. And if that’s the purpose of prayer, how do we move from self-centered requests to God-centered desires? How do we begin to…
Ask with God’s glory in mind.
First, we must begin by filling our minds with the Word of God. The desires that glorify God are not generated by your natural effort, they’re shaped by encountering God through the Bible. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” That doesn’t mean He grants whatever we want but that as we delight in Him, He reshapes what we want. The more your mind is saturated in Scripture, the more your prayers will begin to sound like Jesus; bold, reverent, kingdom-minded, and surrendered.
Second, we must learn to pray reflectively, not reactively. Most of our prayers are formed in a hurry and aimed at relief. But God-glorifying prayer asks harder questions: Will this request make me more like Christ? Will it exalt His name, or mine? Will it bless others, or just make my life easier? Those are clarifying questions. They help expose what we’re really after, and whether it aligns with His glory.
Third, we need to remember that our deepest joy will be found in aligning with His glory. When we ask with His glory in mind, we’re not choosing between God’s joy and ours. We’re saying, “God, give me what will magnify You the most, even if it doesn’t look like what I would have picked.” That’s not easy. It takes faith to believe that His will is better than our wishlist. But that’s where spiritual maturity begins, when we stop using prayer to pull God into our plans and start using prayer to place ourselves in His. And this is exactly where Jesus takes us next…
John 14:14 NASB “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
This verse closely parallels verse 13 but includes an important clarification: Jesus now makes Himself the direct recipient of prayer. In verse 13, He said, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do,” emphasizing His active role in responding. But here in verse 14, He goes further, “If you ask Me anything in My name,” indicating that prayer is not only offered in His name, but offered directly to Him. In the Old Testament, prayer was always directed to God. And yet here Jesus receives prayer as God. He doesn’t redirect it. He doesn’t say, “Take that to the Father.” He says, “Ask Me,” affirming His divine authority. Jesus receives prayer and answers it.
But the condition still stands: “in My name.” This means asking in alignment with His character, His mission, and His will. It is the posture of submission, not presumption. It’s not about saying the words “in Jesus’ name” to authorize a selfish request. It’s about bringing our desires into alignment with His purposes. When we pray in His name, we’re praying as His representatives, asking for what He Himself would approve and accomplish, for the sake of the Father’s glory.
If you’ve ever worked retail, or even just watched someone try to return something, you know that a regular floor employee doesn’t get to make decisions on their own. They can’t just decide to give discounts or override policies. But when the store manager steps in and says, “Give them 20% off,” suddenly the employee has authority they didn’t have before. Why? Because now they’re acting on behalf of someone higher. The power doesn’t come from their position, it comes from the person they represent. That’s what it means to pray in Jesus’ name. We’re not walking up to the throne of grace with our own credentials. We’re coming with His authority, asking for what He approves, trusting that He still speaks and still acts.
Jesus doesn’t say, “If you pray hard enough, I might consider it.” He says, “I will do it.” That’s a promise. Not that we’ll always get what we want, but that when our prayers align with His name and His glory, He Himself will act.
If praying in Jesus’ name means we come under His authority and in alignment with His mission, then the question becomes—how should we approach God when we pray? What gives us the right to come before Him with confidence instead of hesitation or guilt? The answer begins not with technique, but with trust in the gospel. That’s why we must…
Pray with confidence in Jesus’ Name.
You will never approach the true and living God confidently until you have first been reconciled to Him. You might approach the god you made up in your imagination, but not the Jesus of the Bible. Isaiah 59:2 says, “Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” The word iniquity in Scripture refers to more than just individual sinful actions. It describes something deeper: a kind of moral crookedness or inner bent away from God. Whereas sin can refer to a specific act, like lying, stealing, or lusting, iniquity is the inward distortion that produces those acts. It’s that deep, built-in resistance to God’s rule and righteousness. Isaiah 53:6 says, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray… and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” That means Jesus didn’t just bear the consequences of a few wrong choices, He bore the twisted, self-centered condition of our hearts.
Jesus doesn’t just cover our sin, He confronts it, breaks its power, and carries it away. At the cross, He took the full weight of our guilt and shame, not only so we could be forgiven, but so we could be made new. The wrath we deserved fell on Him, and in exchange, we receive His righteousness. That means if you are in Christ, there is no sin left to pay for, no judgment left to fear, and no reason to hide. You can come to the Father boldly, not because you’ve cleaned yourself up, but because Jesus was crushed in your place. He is your access. He is your confidence.
When we understand what Jesus has done for us, how He bore not just our guilt but our very iniquity, it reshapes everything. We’re not trying to earn God’s attention through performance. We already have His favor through Christ. And that kind of grace doesn’t make us passive; it stirs something in us. It awakens love. And love doesn’t just feel something, it responds. That’s why Jesus immediately says…
John 14:15 NASB “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
Love always leads to loyalty. Do you love the Jesus revealed in the Bible? Not some insecure, sentimental version, holding His heart out begging to be loved. The real Jesus who calls sinners to repent, who flips tables, who walks into suffering, who lays down His life for enemies, and who claims every inch of your life as His. Because that Jesus is real.
He doesn’t flatter you. He doesn’t sell you comfort. He tells you the truth, even when it hurts. And yet, He never walks away from you. He flips tables, yes, but it’s because He hates what sin does to people. He walks into suffering, not to simply to sympathize with you, but to destroy it at its root. He calls sinners to repent, not to shame them, but to rescue them from the lies that are killing them. He lays down His life for enemies, not after they clean themselves up, but while they’re still spitting in His face. And He claims every inch of your life, because He’s the only One strong enough, wise enough, and loving enough to carry the weight of your soul. That Jesus doesn’t play games. He gives Himself fully, and He asks for all of you in return. Not because He’s needy, but because you are. And only when He takes the center does everything else in life finally begin to hold together.
Do you love that Jesus? And if not, what does that say about you? Are His commands a burden to you? Do you find yourself resisting what He loves? Because if you don’t love what He loves, then obedience a grind. And if you don’t love what He loves, it is because you’re still holding back, resisting, negotiating, or redefining Jesus so you can stay in control. Love doesn’t hold back. Love yields. It stops negotiating and starts following. That’s why Jesus says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” In other words…
Let your love for Jesus drive your obedience to Him.
When we love Jesus and obey Him, it keeps our prayers rooted in relationship instead of drifting into transaction. Because when love leads, obedience becomes a response, not a requirement. But when we try to pray without love, when we treat God like a system to manage or a tool to get results, prayer loses its center. It turns into bargaining. “If I pray hard enough… if I live clean enough… maybe He’ll listen.” But that’s not how sons and daughters speak to their Father. We don’t obey to earn His favor. We obey because we already have it. That’s what keeps prayer warm, honest, and alive, not perfect performance, but sincere love for the One who loved us first.
So where do you go from here? Not to try harder. Not to pray longer or sound more spiritual. But to come honestly. To come as one who’s been loved by Christ, shaped by grace, and invited to draw near. True prayer begins and ends with Him. It is not a performance. It is not a transaction. It is a relationship—bought by His blood, sustained by His Spirit, and rooted in His love. So bring your heart. Bring your desires. Bring your mess. And pray—not to get something from Him, but to be with Him. Because when Jesus is the center, everything else begins to hold together.
