The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – John 17:20-26 (day five) ”I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”

I believe one of our deepest needs is unity. To feel and sense cooperation and agreement. Fractured relationships are unsettling and disruptive to our hearts and minds. The only solution (source) for unity (perfect unity) is God’s love. Unity, when authentic and grounded in God’s love, is a picture of the Gospel. Jesus claims in His Priestly Prayer, that the unity He desires is a picture of God’s Love- sending the Son to repair and reconcile the human race. (Unity seeks to restore and reconcile relationships for the Glory of God). Unity is  also a picture of God’s Love seen in our relationships with each other. Kindness. Forgiveness. Accountability. Faithfulness. Only God’s love gives us the hope and chance for unity that will glorify God. When God’s love is the source and catalyst for unity, people will be able to sense and see God’s holiness, grace, and love on display. They will see and experience the gospel at work (in us and through us).

Re:Verse passage – John 17:20-26 (day four)

“The glory which You have given Me, I have given to them…”

Christ has given us glory. But…I don’t often feel very glorious, do you? Would you describe your day-to-day life as glorious? The majority of our lives are spent doing pretty non-glorious things. Just getting through the day, doing what needs to get done, worrying about what tomorrow will bring, figuring things out.   

But, much of Jesus’ life on earth was filled in the same way as ours. He got hungry, he got tired, he got up, went to work, went home. He had to tend to his body as it aged, he knew what exhaustion felt like. Yet he was still full of glory. He was still full of the glory that is found in his intimate relationship with the Father. Because that’s who he is – he is the Son of the living God, created in glory. So no matter what else was happening to him on any given day, that glory was the most true thing about him.  

When he came and lived his life on earth, he gave that glory to us. He brought us into that fold, that beautiful glory that he enjoys with the Father, we now enjoy with him and the Father, through the Spirit. It’s not glory in spite of the mundane parts of life, it’s glory that reaches into those ordinary parts of life and makes them beautiful, makes them redeemed. Now, even on our worst day, on our most non-glorious day, when we’ve accepted Christ as our savior, that glory that we share with him is the most true thing about us too.

It is through living in this reality that we show the world who our God is.

Re:Verse passage – John 17:20-26 (day three)

“I have made your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

There’s a deeper source of loneliness and despondency than one’s conclusion that God is unknown, and that is one’s conclusion that God cannot be known. To remain permanently sealed off from even the possibility that inquiry and exploration could lead to an experience of God’s existence would be the kind of life in which atheism would make sense. In such a reality, belief in God or religious inclination would make no practical difference to a human being whatsoever. In his prayer, Jesus reaches through and beyond such a chasm between divine and human. He’s getting a message out from heaven that God is here. All things are now possible.

Re:Verse passage – John 17:20-26 (day two)

That they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. Vs. 21

Jesus’ words in this prayer are not a condition for salvation, but a desire for a blessing beyond imagining. His call for unity is not a call for conformity. We don’t see him saying he wants everyone to look alike, talk alike, and be the same. Paul would later remind us that we are all made uniquely, and that each has a part to play in the symphony of the Lord. Jesus wants us to experience the beauty of unity that can only come from union with the Lord.  Then, all those differences that we see in each other fade in comparison to the light that shines from our being in step with Jesus. He speaks so beautifully about wanting this for all of us. If he had such a desire for this unity, shouldn’t we?

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 3:14-21 (day seven)

“to Him be the glory in the church” Ephesians 3:21a

After a beautiful dialogue on how and what happens in us when we pray, Paul concludes this section with an even more beautiful doxology. The focus of the dialogue was on the “inner man” so one might think that this doxology would follow suit. Yet, the calling is actually for us to give Him glory together in the church. Prayer and worship can be immensely personal, but the external expression of what happens internally is magnified on the corporate level.

John Piper says it like this, “The inner essence of worship is to know God truly and then respond from the heart to that knowledge by valuing God, treasuring God, prizing God, enjoying God, being satisfied with God above all earthly things.”

Sunday morning is our “in the church” moment, but is not the only time we worship in the week. Sunday morning is an opportunity for us to respond together in joyful adoration to the God in Whom we have found complete satisfaction. Though our personal prayers and journeys may be different, we can all lift our eyes and voices together as one to say, “God is good. To Him be the glory!”

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 3:14-21 (day six)

So please don’t lose heart…Ephesians 3:13

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. 1 John 4:18

To know and experience the love of God is to live and love without fear. Fear, or losing heart, leads to self-preservation. Love leads to freely giving of ourselves to others. Fear dehumanizes. Love restores our humanity. Fear leads to trusting our instincts. Love leads to trusting Jesus.

That is how Paul was praying. The only way they could not lose heart was to know and experience the love of Jesus more deeply, and it is there, and only there that they can know the fullness of God (all that he purposed them to be).

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 3:14-21 (day five)

“may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,”

Paul is convinced that being in community and fellowship with other believers gives them the best chance to grow and grasp God’s love. Spiritual growth is often a group activity. Why?  How?  Because when you’re with other believers in worship, bible study, serving, praying, and ministering- you see, hear, and experience the many facets of God’s love. We learn from one another. We challenge one another. We encourage one another. Testimonies. Examples. Faithfulness. Endurance. Joy. Kindness. All, ways we might not ever encounter God’s love and power on our own or by ourselves. God desires to use each of us to display His love to others. In the same way, God desires to use others to teach and remind each of us (if we are willing to look, listen, and learn) of His great love and holiness. Wanna grow?  Wanna walk in step with the Spirit? Then, be faithful to be in your place with other believers, and be ready to see and sense the Lord’s love and power!!

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 3:14-21 (day four)

It is in times of temporary distress or tribulation that, if we’re keeping in step with the Spirit, we can begin to appreciate the magnitude of God’s love. In times of weakness or hardship, we develop a further understanding of the width, length, height, and depth of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

When we see the Lord move in someone’s life whom we have a distaste for, or even despise, we see the width of God’s love that extends to every living thing, a far wider love than we can offer. When we think to ourselves after our latest failed attempt to get rid of that issue of sin in our life, “Surely I’ve exhausted God’s grace,” we see the length of God’s love that extends eternally, without term limits. When we cry out for an Advocate, we see the height of God’s love that extends from this earth all the way up to the throne room, where Christ intercedes on our behalf. In our absolute lowest moments, we see the depth of God’s love, finding us at rock bottom and pulling us up again.

We know, as we’re told in Romans, that tribulations bring about perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. But it’s not simply the experience of these hardships that cause this to happen. It’s the newfound experience of God’s love that leads us to hope. So if you’re in the thick of distress right now, don’t dismay. You’ll find new, unexplored territory of God’s love – more than you could ever ask, think, or imagine.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 3:14-21 (day three)

“that [God] would grant you…to be strengthened with power…in the inner man…”

That’s a lot of power from the Holy Spirit that Paul prays would flow to the core of your being. Will it overwhelm you? Not at all. Consider the concept of thermal runaway, by which a system – such as a car battery – receives so much power in a recharging attempt that a positive feedback loop leads to the explosion of the battery. Why wouldn’t your inner being do just that when it receives God’s power? After all, you’re “only human,” and Paul’s talking about universe-creating potency. Well, that “only human” phrase is completely contrary to what God has created. There’s no such thing as “only human.” The human creature comes into being in God’s image. God made good stuff. That’s why God’s power will strengthen you and not destroy you.