John 17 is a prayer. Jesus prays to God throughout the entire chapter, but focuses on three separate things.
To kick things off, Jesus prays that he might be glorified. God has sent Jesus to the earth, and Jesus did everything He commanded of him. He sent Jesus down as a sinless babe, and he lived a sinless life, carrying out all of God’s deeds. Jesus was (or at this point in time, will be) sacrificed on a cross, hung to die, for the sins of the earth. This was God’s plan all along and Jesus has seen it to the end. He knows he’s about to suffer, yet he asks for God to glorify him so that he could, in exchange, glorify God. Even on death’s doorstep, he is focused on glorifying God and ensuring that His will be done.
How can we glorify God? I mean, we’re (probably) not going to go hang on a cross for him. Jesus stared down death and the first thing he wants to know is how he can glorify God through it. In our path to become Christ-like, we should be wondering how we can glorify him, and amplifying that to our best abilities.
The second thing that Jesus prays for are his disciples. These men have faithfully followed Jesus and helped teach the masses his message. They have abandoned life as they knew it in order to travel and share the love of God. Jesus knows that his death will not be easy to bear. The disciples will struggle through it, and after it. That being known, Jesus is grateful for them. He prays that God will defend them.
Note in verse 12 though that he says “None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.” This one doomed to destruction must be Judas Iscariot. He betrayed Jesus, and in doing so, Jesus was led to the cross. Scripture being fulfilled.
The last thing Jesus will pray for is all believers. In 21, I think he’s talking about the church. “that all of them may be one, Father”. Jesus wants us to come together in our faith to be Christ-like and of the same mind. Jesus wants us all to be unified, so that the world will know his love.
I feel as if Jesus’ prayer is a simple prayer. It’s simple, because he focuses on glorifying God and reaching the lost with the people he’s leaving behind. He prays for three separate things, but they all have the same end-goal. Just because the prayer is simple doesn’t mean It’s not important, though. Everything he prays for is a necessity for church and for the Christian belief. Our prayers should be the same. We should be glorifying God with our prayers and lifting him up. We should be taking time out of our day to focus on prayer that is devoted solely to furthering God’s kingdom.
I want to challenge you to join me in a prayer journey. Every morning, take a few minutes to sit down and pray. Don’t do anything else, just pray. Sit somewhere peaceful, and focus on communicating with God, and asking Him what you could be doing to glorify Him. After your few minutes of prayer, write down in a prayer journal what you prayed for. Keep that prayer journal handy, and as God reveals His answers to your prayer, make sure you document that as well.
Today’s Contributing Author: Josh Litscher
No comments:
Post a Comment