Ruth 3:9-11 ESV
He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” [10] And he said, “May you be blessed by the LORD, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. [11] And now, my daughter, DO NOT FEAR. I WILL DO FOR YOU ALL THAT YOU ASK, ffor all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman.
Esther 8:8 NASB95
Now you write to the Jews AS YOU SEE FIT,, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for a decree which is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s signet ring may not be revoked.”
Because we are in union with Christ He is our prayer life. To pray in His name is to pray in union with what He is praying for. It is to pray in partnership with Him. That’s why we are told that if we ask anything in His name, according to His will, it will be done for us. That’s a pretty broad spectrum from which we can talk to our Heavenly Father.
Ruth was lying at the feet of Boaz asking him to redeem her story and it so pleased him that he told her “Do not fear. I will do whatever you ask.” What a broad promise from her Kinsman Redeemer. By the way, Boaz is a type of our Kinsman Redeemer Jesus. Can we dare to believe that our redeemer has that kind of heart for us? As a matter of fact, He makes that kind a promise to us five different times in the upper room discourse in John 14-17.
In the story of Esther evil Haman wrote a decree that in one day all the Jews in the Persian Empire (which were most if not all the Jews in the world) would be annihilated. That decree according to the laws of the Medes and Persians could not be nullified. The only way to stop that evil decree from being carried out would be for another decree to go forth in the name of the king that would simply overrule Haman’s decree. The king told Mordecai to write a decree “as he saw fit” in the king’s name that would overrule any what Haman had written. He basically was asking Mordecai “how do you see it,” and how you see it write it down in the king’s name.
Often we are afraid to believe that God really wants to answer our prayers; that God really wants to give us the desires of our heart. If you are, as far as you know, fully surrendered to Christ living His life through you and therefore God’s will being your will; thus you have laid down your story so that He can now live out His story through your humanity, then He invites us to pray in Jesus name the way “we see it.” That’s hard to believe isn’t it. Therein lies the problem; it’s hard to believe, but if you are abiding in Christ then He becomes your prayer life and then when praying in His name it should not be hard to believe that the Father would say “I will do for you whatever you ask.