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In the Bible passage for Monday’s Forward Day by Day devotion, Hebrews 12:2 reads: “looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, . . . and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”

I never before thought about this idea that Jesus followed through with his sacrifice partly for the sake of the joy that was set before him, but it really works as a confirmation of one of the principles I write about in my book; it’s nothing less than “smart selfishness” on a cosmic (and divine!) scale. This means that whenever we need motivation to continue on the path that we know we “ought” to continue on, we can recall that not only did Jesus endure the cross because he wanted to reconcile us to the God of Love, he also did it because he knew that he personally would experience greater joy that way than if he had backed down from the challenge he was faced with. He models for us not only that we “should” persevere in our trials, but also that if we do, we will be happier than if we don’t!

That’s a tip for why we should persevere in doing whatever we know deep inside we ought to do. A tip for how we can best do that, as well as how we can best accomplish all our purposes in life, was the subject of an email I wrote recently to a guy who felt he had prayed and prayed about something yet continually failed to get the result he wanted.

My message was based on John 16:24: “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.” (Italics mine.)

Who knows what Jesus meant by “in my name”—but it seems clear to me that it’s something each of us has to figure out for ourselves, in prayerful back-and-forth dialogue with God. And, based on the experiences I detail in my book, this requirement of our prayers being in Jesus’ name usually has something to do with learning new things about God and about ourselves, and making changes in our attitudes and our paths, so that we are continually becoming more & more loving of others, as Jesus suggests in the “new commandment” to love (John 13:34).

(Of course this commandment is an echo of the second of the two great commandments Jesus talks about in the other gospels, but for me at least, it’s helpful that here he mentions only the love of others and not the love of God. That’s because I’ve always been pretty good about loving God, but not so good about loving my neighbor. When the commandment about God was up there too, I could conveniently focus on it and pretty much ignore its pesky companion commandment to love my neighbor as myself.)

The upshot of all this is that for whatever challenges in our lives we’d like God to help us with, I believe there are nearly always things we need to change about our thinking in order to render our prayers more truly “in Jesus’ name” than they have been in the past. I also believe that whatever these spiritual improvements are, God will lead us to them if we truly open up & listen to him.

There’s a Kierkegaard quote I have as an epigraph to one of my chapters: “A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until in the end he realized that prayer is listening.”

I wish everyone good listening to God! Happy Easter!