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Lenten Devotional

April 8, 2020

All Day

Category: Lenten Devotional

A 2,000-year-old Prayer for You

“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” (John 17:20-21).

In modern day individualistic living, it is easy to feel detached from the people and events in the Bible. After all, we are in the millennial age. We are not Peter, James or John. Perhaps our “church” life consists of church, home group and community but no more.

Do you ever think of your Christian life as a life intrinsically linked with the life of God? That without that link to God, we have no purpose?

Jesus as the Son of God and our intercessor had the foresight to look beyond his disciples and the earthly generation of believers, even on the night he was betrayed. Jesus prayed that we might understand the sharing of truth, the sharing of power, and the sharing of life, and that we might be one.

The understanding of our link with God is what produces unity among believers. What does this really mean? The Father is the vine and we are the branches; the Father is in him and Jesus is in us. Because of this belief, we have had the privilege of participating in the divine nature of God throughout history. This makes Christianity unique. Christians throughout the ages have achieved remarkable things through this unity.

Jesus prayed for unity “so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Let us therefore aim to make a habit of demonstrating this unity as a church so that the world will be in no doubt that Jesus is Lord, that he indeed holds the key to history and to reality, that he is indeed the revelation of the invisible God. We can show what can be achieved when the Church begins to demonstrate this unity of faith.

Just as the Father dwells in Jesus, Jesus dwells in us and we in him, the barriers to God have been removed through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Therefore we can apply this daily to remember that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Separately, apart from leaving us his Holy Spirit, Jesus also promised that he would be with us always until the end of the age.

Prayer: Lord, you have made me one with believers in all places in all times. May that unity be reflected in all that I do and say. Break down the barriers that divide us into different factions and help us find unity in Christ. In Jesus’ name. Amen.