John 17:20-26 (NRSV)
Read John 17:20-26 on biblegateway.com
Verse 20"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, Verse 21that they may all be one. As you, Father, 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. Verse 22The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, Verse 23I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Verse 24Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Verse 25"Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. Verse 26I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."
Devotion
Jesus prays for us! What an amazing thought! Sometimes I think of prayer more as a one-way street, me asking God for “things.” I forget that Jesus intercedes for me before God. What would you ask Jesus to pray on your behalf?
Jesus prays for his followers to be one. Jesus also prays for the world to believe that God sent him. What difference would it make in our lives and our world if we prayed for those two things? When Jesus prays for his followers to be one, he prays not for them all to be or think alike, but that we all would be one in our mutual love and activity.
What do you pray for? Like Christ, may we pray to love one another and to be one in mission making Christ known in the world.
Prayer
Jesus, thank you that you love us enough to pray for us. Lord, thank you for your heart’s desire that we be one. Empower us to lay aside those things which keep us from being one with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Lord, use us so the world will know of the Father’s love. Amen.