In this week’s passage, Jesus prayed aloud to God. He had a conversation with His Father, out loud, and invited His disciples to enter God’s throneroom. Jesus prayed for Himself, for His disciples, and for all believers.
Jesus’ prayer for Himself was that He would glorify His Father and that His Father would glorify Him. What does it mean to glorify God? To give Him honor and respect, to reveal who God is to other people. Christ brought the Father glory by completing the work God gave Him to do. This work was to make God known on earth.
Jesus gave eternal life to everyone the Father had given to Him. Jesus considers believers to be gifts from God.
Jesus knew He belonged to God, and He lived accordingly. He brought glory to God with everything He said and did. We should do the same. We should live as Jesus’ treasured possessions.
Jesus’ prayer for His disciples was that they would be protected and sanctified. Jesus was going back to the Father, but the disciples were staying on earth. Jesus asked God to protect the disciples by His name, by His nature. Jesus asked God to protect the disciples from Satan. Jesus asked God to sanctify the disciples, to set them apart for God’s holy use.
Jesus noted that the disciples were in the world but not of the world. To be in the world is to be present in the world. To not be of the world is not to follow the world’s system in regard to belief, behavior, and standards. Believers are present in the world but don’t have the same beliefs, behaviors, and standards of the unbelieving world. God called us to live in the world but to be so different than the world that people would be drawn to God through our words and actions.
Jesus prayed that all believers would be unified – one message, one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. We should be unified on the essential truths of the Christian faith.
Things to Think About
- Jesus’ prayer for Himself was that He would glorify His Father and that His Father would glorify Him.
- Do you desire to bring God glory? Do you ask God to glorify Himself through you?
- Jesus’ prayer for His disciples was that they would be protected and sanctified.
- Jesus’ prayer for all believers was that they would be unified.
- Is prayer your first resort or your last resort?