John 13-17 gives us a clear window into the heart of God and the promises that undergird our daily life with Christ! And in the midst of that section of Scripture, we see Jesus’ prayer to His Father, for His disciples and for us.
In that prayer are words that add punctuation to our conversation on unity and the kind of relationships God has designed for us to have as His children.
Listen to Jesus pray 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. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:20-23 NIV).
If this doesn’t grab your heart with the seriousness God has about our unity, and relationships that fully reflect Him, nothing will.
Here are three highlights that should inform us on the importance of loving and unified relationships. God wants:
- Our bonds of unity to vividly reflect the oneness between the Father and the Son.
- Our community to exhibit oneness in our relationship with Him.
- Our unity and oneness to awaken a lost world to God’s love for them.
God’s desire for us to live in relationships whose unity reflects Him is not only for our benefit, but for the benefit of a world that desperately needs to see a different way of life…a way of life that displays abundance and relationships full of genuine love.
Join Jesus’ prayer. Pray right now for God to answer this prayer in your life, and the lives of those in your Christian community.