In the Name of Jesus, ...

I picked up Edmund Chan's book, "Growing Deep In God: Integrating Theology and Prayer", hoping to capture some spiritual nuggets of wisdom and stumble on the chapter on "Misconceptions About Prayers" (pp. 92 to 100).

In illustrating the mentality of treating God as the genie in a bottle, he talked about a little boy's fear of the dark when his mother asked his help to retrieve a broom in the back porch, and how his mother reassured him of Jesus' protection and omnipresence. Instead of trusting Jesus to protect him while retrieving the broom, the little boy prayed to Jesus to bring him the broom!

There were a few nights where my son would refuse to sleep and told me he was afraid of the dark and even ghosts. Despite reassuring him that Jesus is the head of this household and that ghosts would run away from Him, he would still be unsettled. I resorted to teaching him a Sunday School song "In the Name of Jesus" and after he sang that a few times, he was able go to sleep easily. That's the power of declaring Jesus' name!

For those with young children, try singing this tune to them before sleep in reassuring them of God's love and protection:

In the name of Jesus,
In the name of Jesus,
We have the victory

In the name of Jesus,
In the name of Jesus,
Demons will have to flee

When we stand on the name of Jesus,
Tell me who can stand before

In the mighty name of Jesus,
We have the victory.