INTRODUCTION: Throughout the next week, Time With God will continue to explore who we are in Christ. Our prayer is that you will grow in confidence and hope as we unpack biblical truth about who God has made us to be. Please note that there will be no Digging Deeper section.
GETTING STARTED
Jesus prayed for me. And Jesus prayed for you. Let me say that again, so you don’t miss it: Jesus prayed for you. Not metaphorically, but literally. As Jesus was preparing to die, he took time to pray down through the ages for you. Many of us know that the Holy Spirit prays for us (Romans 8:26 tells us this), but have you ever stopped to consider that Jesus, while he walked this earth, stopped all that he was doing and spent time praying for you?
- How do you feel when you find out someone has been praying for you?
READ THE WORD: JOHN 17:20-23 (ESV)
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
RESPOND TO GOD
It’s profoundly humbling and moving to realize that the Son of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of all Lords, stopped all that he was doing to pray for you. It can take your breath away. But what’s even more astonishing is what he prayed. From one end of the earth to the other, from the beginning to the close of time, Jesus prayed for all who believe in him to be unified in one spirit—in his spirit.
Jesus prayed to God saying, “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one.” We are to be united with Jesus, and united with God through Jesus, and united with each other. And in this beautiful unity of believers, we will be a living message to the world that Jesus is God’s son. The oneness of believers will ultimately help the world to see and know God.
This also means that Jesus, by giving us the Holy Spirit, has placed in us the Spirit who calls us to love all other Christians. Therefore, I can’t hold a grudge. I can’t count a wrong done to me by a fellow believer. I can’t withhold forgiveness. As Jesus was poured out, I must be poured out. But beautifully, miraculously, in our unity with Jesus, he has given us his Spirit, the one who makes this oneness among believers possible.
May the breathtaking fact that Jesus prayed for us move us in his Spirit to oneness with fellow believers. May it move us to let go of grudges, hurts, pains, and wrongs and extend forgiveness. As Jesus was poured out, may we be poured out in service and love to fellow Christians.
- Thank Jesus for praying for you. Thank him that he desires for you to have a oneness with fellow believers that is the same as his oneness with God.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to help you restore unity if there is brokenness in your relationship with a fellow believer.