How have you been using your words in prayer lately? We seek to take Jesus’s words in John 17 and put them on, wear them in faithful obedience in this world. We’re here to use our words of prayer, edification, encouragement, gentle challenge, and honest conversations to bring the unity of heaven to earth. In a world set against itself, we live the way of Jesus within it, bringing light into darkness and calm to chaos. As followers of Jesus, we seek to heal the divides and invite the whole world to God’s generous table of welcome. As followers of Jesus, we want to not only pray for oneness but to actively seek to create it in this world of brokenness, fracture, and division. We’re not here to believe in unity but to create it. Jesus was showing us what He wanted us to actively participate in bringing to earth-harmony with one another. Of all the things Jesus could have prayed for in this last moment of calm, He prayed for you and me to be one. You’re telling the living God that you’re willing to enter into the situation and be His hands and feet in it to bring help, aid, relief, or comfort to the one you’re praying for. When you pray for other people, you’re agreeing to contend for them, to advocate for them, and to actively be part of the help they need. In other words, when you pray for someone or something, you’re telling the living God you’re ready to actively partner with Him in bringing it to fruition, to reality. Prayer is active partnership with the Lord to see heaven come to earth, to bring the rule and reign of Jesus into the “now” of right here. 20-21a).įor the Jewish people, prayer is more than words. May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you” (vv. If you’ve ever wished you could have been at the Last Supper to experience it with Jesus and His disciples, know that you were there in Jesus’s mind, heart, and in His words of prayer at the very end of the meal: “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. Jesus’s prayer in John 17 is personally so special to me because within it, He prays for you and me. Now when it was time for supper …” (1-2a). Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. John 13 begins with the words, “Before the Passover Festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. This last meal together was the final moment of calm before the chaos of all that would follow, and Jesus knew it. It’s a final prayer prayed by Jesus at the Last Supper with His disciples before Gethsemane and His arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection. John 17 is the last chapter in the Upper Room Discourse (John 13–17). In praying, we give our words to the living God, and we posture ourselves to hear His words given to us. Prayer is one of the most powerful ways we give and receive words in this life. We’re human beings walking around with something so meaningful within us-our words. The Jewish people believe that words can create or destroy worlds. In Genesis 1 and 2, the living God created by speaking words. This article appeared in the March 2023 issue of HomeLife Magazine.
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