Scripture for the week: John 17:20-26

Quote for the week: “… in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

During the last two weeks we have seen Jesus pray for Himself and the disciples, and now we see Him praying for us. What is even more amazing is that the prayers are all the same. Jesus’ first prayer is to glorify the Father. The next prayer is for the disciples and all future believers to have the same relationship with the Father and Himself as the Father and Jesus have. Chapter 17 is an amazing story of relationship. In the first part of the chapter Jesus reminds us of His relationship with the Father which began before the world. Next He reminds the disciples (and us) that we are not of this world, and finally we see in these last few verses of chapter 17 that Jesus is in us in the same manner He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. THAT is relationship. We talk about how the married couple is one, but that is simply a shadow compared to the relationship between the Father and the Son and between us and the Son and the Father.

Too often we let the daily struggles of this world become our focus. Jesus wants us to understand the reality that HE is to be our focus. Our relationship with Him is the most important part of life; the rest is merely background noise. As we grow in our relationship with Jesus He allows us to see that He is in fact our very life. (Remember the verse on top of this email each week, “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:28)

As we allow our relationship to grow we find Jesus living in, with, and through us, and while the daily struggles are still there, as we allow Him to hold those, our life becomes more restful. As we grow in Him we also find our earthly relationships growing.

Prayer for the week: Father, speak to me today and allow me to see your will, your plans, and your work in my life.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

John 17:20-26 (NIV)