To belong. Isn’t this what most everyone wants in life; to belong to some group, a family, a network of friends? This desire runs deep through our very being. We were created for community, for the need to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. God created us to belong, to long to be His, for we are His creation.
Jesus, as he prays for his disciples, addresses this need for belonging. Throughout his prayer, there is a theme of unity and togetherness. “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.” God the Father and God the Son together. Jesus as he prays to his Father in the presence of his disciples reminds them that they belong to God because they have fellowship with their Savior. He asks his father to protect his friends, those he loves for the world will be against them. He prays that they may “have the full measure of my joy within them.” Oh to see the love Jesus had for his disciples and knowing what they would go through, doesn’t pray that they won’t go through it, but that they will be protected and have joy during the trials they will face. Jesus loves you. We will go through trials, we will struggle. When we take a stand for the truth we believe in which God has given us, the world will hate us. But know that you are protected in God’s love and that you can have joy. You belong to God and he loves you. He is with you. Do not be afraid to go where God sends you. And as you go, know that when we love as He loved, we are one in spirit and truth. John 17:1- Jesus Prays to Be Glorified After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. Jesus Prays for His Disciples 6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
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AuthorThe Pastors of Cornerstone Wesleyan Church Archives
July 2017
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