Good Morning Friends,
The lectionary scriptures for today are about Jesus’ prayer for his disciples just before the crucifixion, and Paul’s prayer meeting with his friends in Ephesus just before he goes to Jerusalem and then is packed up on a ship for Rome to have his head chopped off. There are some obvious similarities to the events. But what comes to my mind this morning is the drama of the servant lives both Jesus and Paul led and whether we measure up with a thankfulness for what God has already done in ours. So, Do Our Prayers Glorify God?
Scripture: After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.
John 17:1-11a (NRSV)
From Miletus he sent a message to Ephesus, asking the elders of the church to meet him. When they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the entire time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, enduring the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. I did not shrink from doing anything helpful, proclaiming the message to you and teaching you publicly and from house to house, as I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus. And now, as a captive to the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me. But I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God’s grace. “And now I know that none of you, among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom, will ever see my face again. Therefore I declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God
Acts 20:17-27 (NRSV)
Message: If Jesus is praying as recorded in John 17 on our behalf for us to attain a higher, more lofty sense of togetherness, we sure have not listened very well. Neither were the disciples. And when I see what is happening in Israel today after 2000 years, I see a miracle but also the reality that we are more pathetic than we think. So, what is going on here in Jesus’ prayer for unity and in the Acts of the Apostles and more specifically of Paul in response? We need hope that our heartfelt prayers will be heard and fulfilled, and it is very difficult for me to see the Son of God’s unanswered prayer staring us in the face. What does it mean for his disciples then and for us now when our prayers are rejected? Maybe our prayers are unreasonable but certainly not Jesus’. Maybe I just do not get it. We all bleed the same but are in such disunity. Maybe God is still patiently waiting on us to commit. Maybe God is waiting for us to become one in the giving of our time, talent, and treasure. Then maybe it just a once and done deal at Pentecost but I would like to think we still have hope of revival today in the power of the Holy Spirit to pray more with thankfulness for others more than ourselves. Still, we are to know and encounter God personally and too few do. I do hope your life has a message that grips your heart and that of others with a focus that it is not about our list of wants. Paul’s message was one for the strategic mission field. For Jesus, it was laying the groundwork for the salvation of the world. In today’s context, both were leaving, as we all must eventually leave. And they both were going to be missed. Both believed that what they were doing was going to make a difference. But the question remains whether our lives, after we go, will make a difference, and have an impact for a better world. Friends, when the world grades a person, the world considers their brain, beauty, brawn, or bucks. But when you are facing death, what counts and what matters? What do you consider success and significance? So, as we look back on the Memorial Day weekend, we might well ask how one measures one life in the way we pray? And today’s scripture would guide us to the conclusion that it is more the manner of one’s life that should be the test. So, by this reasoning the ultimate question will be if we love others with humility. For the Bible says that we are to love others as we love ourselves. Friends, when God measures a life, it is not by how many servants one has, but by how many people a person serves. It is about dignity. It is about being a humble person who serves other people. In addition to carrying the mark of humility in our service we must have true compassion…so that we shed a tear for the heartache of another in the prayers we offer. If you live for self and self alone and you try to insulate yourself from the cares and the toils and the problems of this world, you are not going to be missed. So, we need to be a people who know how to sympathize, a people who know how to empathize, a people who have the compassion of the Lord Jesus in our hearts that can withstand hardship. That is the way to have a great prayer life. And that is how we are to live together as Christians in an unjust world.
And So, God is glorified whether we pray or not. Our prayers do not typically change God, if ever, but can change us. Certainly, we believe that there is nothing that God cannot do and may wonder why Jesus’ prayer has not been fully answered after 2000 years. But the problem lies with our thinking not with God. We know that God does not force us to do anything. Even in prayer we have freedom. If we love, He leads us, prompts us, convicts us, challenges us to follow Him, all in. But if we do not listen to our prayers and the prayers of others, if we do not follow Him actively in love, a part of God’s good plan for us remains unfulfilled. I believe that God gets what God wants. So, God must be wanting, in His divine patience, for us to respond in a way we have yet to collectedly do. Perhaps we are being protected for a future time… a time when every knee will bow and every mind confess, but we are reluctant to lead the way. Still God will accomplish His purposes, but the frightening thing is that we may miss out on what He is doing now if we are not engaged in the unity of the Spirit. We may miss the blessing that could have been ours when we fight and argue rather than love and serve. Worse yet than missing out is that we may be a stumbling block for others. Rather than being a conduit for God’s love to be shown to a hurting world, we may drive people away from God and His Son by the way we claim to represent Him. Jesus is not just asking God for something. He is asking us for something too. Jesus is praying to us, pleading with us also to be one with each other, as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one. Unity and love in the body of Christ is far more important than personal pride. It seems for the last century the major thrust of Christendom is about who is right and has the answers. But we have lost something when we fail to love one another and love others who may be difficult to love. I doubt whether we can honestly call ourselves Christians just because we believe certain points of theology and go to special places of worship. If we do not truly love people, it will be difficult for others to ever know God. Friends, it is true people may not always remember what you say, but they will always remember how it made them feel. Friends, without love there can be no unity. But with love we remember the best of feelings and that is a good place to begin when the time comes for God’s purpose to exacted in our lives to honor God’s glory in the prayers we offer.
Pray we have the heart of the Apostles. Pray we are faithful and humble and compassionate. Pray we count the cost and still withstand the hardship. Pray we have courage. Pray we are willing to run the course. Pray that God’s will be done, and we are thankful for it. Pray we stay focused on the goal. Pray the model, methods, message, and mottos of our lives glorify God. Pray our lives make a difference. Pray we realize that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Pray our message has the right content and right conviction. Pray we are bound in the Spirit of God for a purpose that honors God and brings unity to believers. Pray that we make people feel loved, wanted, believed in, and hoped for. Pray we bring out the best in one another rather than the worst in each other. Pray we spend less time praying about being right and more time praying about being one. Pray we spend more time praying for grace to love those who are difficult to love. Pray we spend more time praying for opportunities to show God’s love to others, and not just in random acts of kindness but also in collective acts of service. Pray God be glorified in us. Pray we experience eternal life in a love relationship with an eternal God. Pray we be one as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one. Pray Christ’s prayer be answered in our own. Pray we are blessed to know God’s love and to have compassion for those who would run from it. Pray we realize that prayer is more about changing our thinking to realize all that God has already done is enough for now.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 