“Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name.” – John 16:23
“In the name of Jesus.” Many times I believe we have heard evangelists use this term as they lay hands on people that have come forward to the front of the service to be healed. And so, I believe it behooves us to ask of the same thing as we begin each new year; that in the name of Jesus, he heal us from our iniquities as an individual, as a nation, and as a people…….His people.
In this, by the overflowing love of God we not only have a general promise of redemption, but you and I have also an individual and personal guarantee of our salvation. “I have called you by your name,” and by this remarkable pledge we know that the Savior not only loved humanity as a whole, but each one of us in particular. With this faith we can take any passage of grace and read our name into its love; for it is Christ himself who underlined this assurance when he told his disciples and still tells us today: “rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” Your names are in the Book of Life. And by faithfulness to the same Savior it is a privilege to strengthen all who take Jesus into their hearts and lives as their Redeemer, with the promise that God knows His own individually, that their name has been inscribed in heaven’s Book of Eternity.
You may be only a number in some public institution or in the social security system, but if you’re Christ’s, He calls you by your name. You may have made your own name a reproach to yourself and others, but the Christ whose grace abounds the more where sin abounds, will never be ashamed to take your name upon His holy lips.
Can you measure on this New Year the blessing of knowing that, if you have Christ, your name is recorded in the Book of Life? If doubt threatens to overcome you; if temptations loom alluring, the grind of life threatening, the daily disappointments overwhelming, the ease of life distracting, the demands of business and pleasure all engrossing, then banish these fears as in the strength of your faith you hear Jesus, not simply calling, but Jesus designating you, promising everyone who loves his precious name the redemption, peace, which “Jesus” signifies!
We call upon you with our whole hearts, to circumcise our hearts, taking away the veil of our unbelief and choking out all sinful lusts and desires of the flesh, that we may become new creatures, comforted in every time of need by your most Holy Name; and as children of the new covenant, love one another until we shall all finally be gathered unto you. This day, this year, and every day……”in the name of Jesus” AMEN