In Thy Name

The phrase, “In thy name we pray,”  has always bothered me as making no sense.
I could see coming to the Father in Jesus’ name, with the understanding that he is our intercessor and only avenue for presenting our requests to God. But to use the phrase in that sense, coming to Jesus in the name of Jesus, doesn’t seem to add anything.
However, if we use “The Name” in the sense it is used throughout Scripture, that is for the knowledge and glory of God, as in “thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory”, then it really changes the focus of our prayer. This struck me considering “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified” Jn.14:13. We invoke the name of Jesus in prayer, not so much as a power word to make our request happen, nor even primarily as our authorization for making requests, but as a reminder that we are praying first for his name and glory.  So to say “in your name we pray” means “Let it be (‘amen’) that all this is for the honor of your name”.
The idea of telling the Lord of all creation what to do seems outrageous, grandiose, and actually quite dangerous if we think he is actually going to do something because we said so. But “hallowed be your name”… “thy kingdom come”… “thy will be done”… seem to be the right framework for letting our requests be made known to God. –philw