When I first read through John 17 two days ago, I thought I'd just copy the entire prayer and use it for my blog for the day.... Then the realities of the date of April 3 engulfed me, and I didn't do that. This morning I find that I cannot move past John 17 without at least hitting some of the significant highlights in the prayer Jesus prayed for His faithful followers: the disciples then, and us now.
17:3 "And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."
17:6, 8-9 "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.... For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours."
17:17-18 "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world."
17:20-21 (His prayer for future followers, including us!) "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just 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 have sent me...."
What a glorious mystery, and Jesus paid the price to make it possible!
Jesus paid it all
All to Him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow.
In +-33 A D, on that Wednesday the disciples were undoubtedly preparing for the feast of the Passover that they would celebrate on Thursday evening.... They had to get the room prepared and purchase a lamb that would be slaughtered the next morning precisely as prescribed. I doubt all of that was left to Thursday.... There was a lot to be done for a feast of this magnitude, even just for the 13 of them.... Shopping, organizing. Perhaps the cooking was all done on Thursday - but there would be time for little else that day.
Even the day of preparation was "doing God's will." Even the mundane was holy. Lord, today, as I do the things that are mundane, help them be for Your holy purpose.
No comments:
Post a Comment