John 16:23

John 16:23 says, And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name, He shall give it to you.  Once Jesus had been crucified and ascended to the Father, the Holy Spirit would be with them.  They would no longer have to ask Jesus questions about Who He was.  We do not have to strive to understand the message of the cross if we are His followers.  Again, Jesus said they could ask anything of the Father in Jesus' name and the Father would give it to them. Again, the key is to ask in Jesus name, which means that we are to be submitting to His will.  As long as we do this, we will not go to God with a shopping list of things we want and say that we are asking in the name of Jesus.  We are to ask for our daily bread, not for a gourmet feast.  We often speak of what we deserve from God as His people, but all we ever deserved was death for our sins.  If we trust God to meet our daily needs, then we will be free to do the work we are called for, which is to proclaim Christ and love our neighbor.  In verse twenty-four adds, Hitherto, ye have asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.  What makes the joy of a Christian full, the things of this earth or the things of God?  The disciples so far had followed Jesus without asking for anything, but now that He was about to leave them, Jesus said ask.  When we have a question about God, we need to ask.  When we need something to carry out our mission for Christ, we need to ask.  If we want a bigger television or house or want our team to win a ball game, this is not what Jesus meant and we should not ask.  This is my understanding of what it means to ask in Jesus's name.  If we are truly asking in His name, we will have asked for the guidance of the Holy Spirit to make sure that what we are asking is truly for the advancement of God's Kingdom. As long as we see this promise as God fulfilling all our wants, our joy will always be full.  The things of this earth can never bring us joy. They will soon lose their luster, but the things of God will give us joy forever.