Don’t you appreciate it when someone says they are going to pray for you? Don’t you appreciate it even more when someone says they have prayed for you... especially when you didn’t request prayer? And isn’t it really cool when a person reveals the specifics of their prayer for you? What if the most powerful prayer warrior you know was praying the following prayer for you? Because He did. Jesus prayed this prayer for believers… "I pray for those who believe in Me through the message of my disciples. May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me. I have given them the glory You have given Me. May they be one as We are one. I am in them and You are in Me. May they be made completely one, so the world may know You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me. Father, I desire those You have given Me to be with Me where I am. Then they will see My glory, which You have given Me because You loved Me before the world’s foundation. Righteous Father! The world has not known You. However, I have known You, and these have known that You sent Me. I made Your name known to them and will make it known, so the love You have loved Me with may be in them and I may be in them.” (John 17:20-26) Jesus spent time before the cross praying for future believers… you and me. Look at what he prayed for us… He prayed for unity. Not uniformity… but unity. He prayed that we would be one. During His ministry He was trying to get people to understand that He was one with the Father. Now at the end of His earthly ministry He was praying that we would be one with each other, and one with God. He knew that part of what would cause the world to believe in the Father was them seeing unity between the Father and the Son. He also knew that one of the factors of the world believing in Him was our unity with Him and each other. The world is not simply to see us acting sweet with each other so it will be a nice thing to see. They should see unity in us so that they may become Christians. This passing on of the baton of faith is huge. Jesus knew the Father because He came from the Father. Then He passed along the faith to His disciples, who then passed it along to the next generation, and so on. And here we are. We are believers because people kept on believing and passing along the faith, and the unity that comes through faith. Today you get to live it out and pass it on to others. When you meet other Christians, celebrate the bond of unity that is the Spirit of Truth. When you meet non-Christians, do not engage in the tearing down of other believers or the Church in general. Let us exhibit unity with God and one another so that the baton of faith can continue to the next generation. [Bible quotes are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted.] Find more of David’s work at Heart Of Ministry.
Rick Burns
9/23/2015 03:15:33 pm
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorMy name is David, and I want to know God more, and help other people find Him. Archives
March 2019
Categories |
Proudly powered by Weebly