Give Thanks in Jesus’ Name – The Presidential Prayer Team

Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, – Ephesians 5:20

Do you have a passport? The United States Department of State says a U.S. passport is “a request to foreign governments to permit you to travel or temporarily reside in their territories and have access to lawful local aid and protection.” It also gives you access to U.S. consulates when you are abroad. Without it, the Marines who guard the doorways will not give you entrance.

Your passport into the throne room of God the Father was issued in blood on the cross. Jesus had already said, “I am the way… No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). He also referred to Himself as the door and the gate (John 10:1-10). Just as U.S. passports are issued based on the authority of the United States government, your access to the Father is in the authority of Jesus’ Name. In his commentary on today’s verse, theologian Handley C.G. Moule said it is the authority of Jesus’ name “and the privileged introduction that Name provides, so that through Jesus (in His Name) we might come into the very throne room of God” (Romans 5:2). There is no other name by which one can come to God the Father.

Adam Clarke, a theologian of two centuries ago, adds that “this access to God, or introduction to the Divine presence, is to be considered a lasting privilege. We are not brought to God for the purpose of an interview, but to remain with Him, to be in His household, and by faith to behold His face and walk in the light of His countenance.”

Today, as you pray, thank the Father for giving His Son to provide you with access to Him. Always remember, as you give thanks, to do so based on the authority of Jesus’ name.

Today’s Verse: Ephesians 5:20

giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Recommended for further reading: Ephesians 2:12-22

¹²remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, ¹⁶and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. ¹⁷And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, ²¹in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. ²²In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.