“In the Name of Jesus” by Ros Bayes: 7 Ways to Pray blog series

I’m currently praying so much for a friend going through a devastating time. You may be too. I’ve found such help in Ros’ gentle description of a way of praying for others that helps us release them fully to Jesus and his love. I hope you too will try out this way to pray.

I was brought up to pray wordy prayers. There was a lot of repetition, stock phrases that everyone used. “If it be Thy will” was one, along with “In Jesus’ name, Amen.” When I joined a Brethren assembly at the age of sixteen, they added another: “If our Lord tarry.” I got quite excited the first time I heard that one. Were they really expecting Jesus to come back before the event that we were praying for? I remember feeling a thrill of excitement that these people really thought Jesus might return in the course of the next week. Sadly, I came to realise it was just a formula of words, not something that anyone really expected or was preparing for.

This pattern of prayer continued into my adulthood, but over time I found myself facing situations that no amount of words, still less formulaic ones, could adequately express. How to pray for the young friend whose wife of two years was dying of cancer? Or my own severely disabled child as she faced yet another operation? Or the childless friend who would have given her eye teeth to parent a severely disabled child, or indeed any child?

Reading Proverbs one day I had a moment of revelation. Proverbs 18.10 says, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and are safe.” It was a verse I already knew – we sang a song based on it at church. But reading it that day, it suddenly dawned on me that the name of Jesus is not something we append to our prayers. It is a place, a strong tower, a place of safety from inside which we can pray effective prayers. Did Jesus not tell us to ask “in my name”? “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do.” (John 14.13)

I began to pray differently, using my imagination under the Holy Spirit’s direction. I would visualise a strong, impregnable tower, to which I was granted admission. I would enter the tower, close the door and sit in silence. As I pictured this, I would focus on Jesus whose name this tower was. I would stay in silence and stillness, occasionally interrupted by an expression of praise or love to Him.

When I had a complete sense of being in that place of safety, of His presence there with me, I would picture whoever I wanted to pray for. I would see myself leading them into the strong tower and holding them there with me inside it. It was as if, in that place of safety, I was silently presenting them to the One who knew far better than I did what they needed. No words were necessary. I was asking on behalf of that person within the name of Jesus, and I knew I was heard and answered. No formula, just a place where God hears and answers prayer. It has been my preferred way of praying for people ever since.

Ros Bayes is a writer, a former teacher and mother of three daughters. In June of last year, 9 months after her marriage to Keith Dakin, she retired from her work as Training Resources Developer at Christian disability charity Through the Roof.  Ros has written A level textbooks on Philosophy and Ethics, publications for churches on disability, devotional books and a novel, The Well is Deep, based on the story in John 4 of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well.

Order 7 Ways to Pray here, including in the US, UK, and Australia. You’ll also find lots of resources for small groups – videos and a leader’s guide – here.