Thank you for your kind and encouraging words each week. Your presence in our weekly assemblies is a living testimony of your love for God and respect for His Son, Jesus, who set our standard of obedience to His Father. Jesus also sets forth the pattern for us all to follow, so we can be successful in every aspect of life.
Jesus set the standard through His Word and life while in the flesh. He taught about the importance of prayer and demonstrated it through His actions. Why should we be people of prayer? So that we, too, can be successful in being obedient and pleasing to our Heavenly Father.
Jesus taught His disciples several lessons on prayer but two stand out; Matt. 6:7-15 and Luke 11;1-4. In these two passages, Jesus teaches His disciples how to pray. The lessons that Jesus taught most on prayer were the ones His disciples witnessed in His own life. These included numerous moments such as the prayer before raising Lazarus, before feeding the multitudes, and His agonizing prayer in the garden. But the one we will be taking a closer look at the one He said in the upper room while He was making His request known to His Father.
This prayer exemplifies faith from which we can all learn. Jesus demonstrated unity with God His Father. He trusted God to help Him through to the end, to fulfill His mission, and also to help His disciples as He prepared to join His Father.
Jesus’ primary concern was to be successful in all things. It was critically important to finish all of God’s work He had been sent to accomplish. He wanted His Father to be glorified through all that He had done. He wanted to make sure He taught His disciples to glorify God in their accomplishments, as well. The work was designed to glorify God through bringing about unity. Jesus came so He could show unity between Himself and His Father, Himself and His disciples, and lastly between His disciples and His Father. This relationship was maintained through constant prayer and obedience. This is what John 17 is all about and we will strive to incorporate its teaching into our lives.
My prayer is that we can all be together this Lord’s Day in unity of the spirit, striving to glorify God in all things as we honor His Son.
In Christ,
Steve
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