WHAT DID JESUS PRAY FOR?

In preparation for this week's prayer meeting at The Mission I was reading again the passage in John 17 where. Jesus is praying with his disciples.  He will soon head off to the garden and in a few hours will be arrested and sent to trial. I want to focus on a portion of that prayer, beginning at verse 20.

"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."

The first part of verse 20 makes it clear that Jesus is including US in his prayer. He's thinking past the small group of disciples He's praying with, and looking down through the centuries to come. He's including in His prayer two thousand years of those who would come to believe in Him. He's thinking of people like you and me.

Just a few hours before the crucifixion, when you'd think He would be preoccupied with all that was to come, He was praying for us. What could be so important? What was at the top of His mind that He wanted to pray for? 

Jesus was praying that we would one. He prayed that there would be unity among those who believe in Him. Amazing! Knowing fully the suffering in body and spirit that He was about to experience, the thing on His mind was to pray that we would get along with one another. He prayed for a spirit of love and oneness of purpose among His followers. Coupled with that was a prayer that we would be in unity with He and the Father. Obviously this unity is something of extreme importance.

In the last part of verse 21 Jesus makes it clear why unity among the believers is so crucial. So the world may believe.

Wow! The implication of Jesus' statement is very clear and pretty shocking. When there is disunity, a lack of love among the followers of Jesus, here's the result. Others will look on and conclude that the Gospel is not real. Failure of Christians to get along in love and respect for one another will cause disbelief among the very people we are called to reach for Jesus. If I'm hanging on to bad feelings toward another Christian, maybe not speaking to them because of some perceived offense, in can result in people concluding that the Christian message of love is not real.

In other words, people will look at me and draw conclusions about the reality of God and the quality of what we call Christianity. My life is supposed to be an illustration of the love of God for us. If instead it's characterized by unforgiveness and bitterness, and inability to get along in love and peace with my fellow believers, people will reject faith in Jesus as false and having no real value.

The fact is that others are looking at my life. They are deciding on the reality and value of faith in Jesus (at least in part) by watching my relationships other people. What they decide about eternity may depend on what they see in me. Is that scary?  It's no wonder that was the focus of Jesus' prayer even in those final hours before the cross.

Does this mean I will always agree with others on interpretation of scripture or understanding of some elements of the Christian life? Of course not. In fact it amazes me how two intelligent well-meaning people can look at the same scripture verse and quite honestly come to two rather different conclusions. 

Does it mean that I will never do something that offends someone, or that no one will ever offend me?  No, it doesn't mean that either. We are imperfect human beings and we are sometimes going to rub each other the wrong way.

So what is unity among believers, and between us and God? I believe it means that we acknowledge our differences, sometimes even agree to disagree, and then get on with loving and supporting one another as children of God. It means forgiving instead of hanging on to perceived wrongs. It means acknowledging when we have wronged others, and seeking ways to make it right.

There are millions of Christ followers and we will not see eye to eye with all of them. There are 200 people in our church and even with those small numbers it's inevitable that there will be misunderstandings, disagreements, and offenses. The question is how do we deal with them? Do we overcome them in the spirit of love and unity that Jesus prayed for, or do we allow our differences to fester and grow so they ruin our testimony to others who are watching our lives?

For me it comes down to this. No disagreement between myself and another follower of Jesus is worth causing someone to spend eternity apart from God. Those who are watching my life, looking for proof of the reality of my faith, should see things that attract them to Jesus rather than sending them away believing that the Gospel of love and peace is a fraud.

Are others seeing the love and forgiveness and compassion of Jesus in your life? Are they drawn to Him because of what they see in me? I think I need to pray about that.

LEARNING TO LISTEN

Several weeks ago in our Grounded & Growing class we discussed how our tendency is to spend all of our time in prayer talking, and no real time listening to what God wants to say to us. Last week someone who attended that class shared with me how his prayer time has changed, that he is now spending time allowing God to speak. He told me what an important change it has been in his relationship with God.

Over the years I have come to believe that every aspect of our Christian lives is determined by the quality of our relationship with God. Whenever we explore the topic of spiritual growth or "spiritual formation", no matter what direction we come from it all eventually boils down to the same discussion.  If we want to be spiritually mature and have the quality of life God intends for each of His children we have to focus on our relationship with Him. One of the ways that happens is through our prayer life.

So, what does your prayer life look like? If you're like most people your time in prayer involves a lot of talking. You may spend a bit of time praising and thanking God, and then a lot of time telling God what He can do for you and others. You may be an exception, but for most of us our prayers are typically pretty one-sided conversations.

Think of this in terms of building a relationship with another person. How much can you really get to know someone, and what kind of relationship can you build with them, if you do all the talking and don't do any listening? You will never develop a deep meaningful relationship with anyone on that basis. So how can we expect to grow in our relationship with God, and grow spiritually in the way we would like, if our communication with God is only one way.

Of course it's easy to understand why this happens. Talking with God is not like speaking with another "flesh and blood" person sitting across the kitchen table. The fact that we can't see God when we are talking with him certainly changes things, and the fact that we can't hear an audible voice tends to make us think that either God doesn't want to talk to us, or it's not possible to hear Him.

Jeremiah 33: 3 says "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. " It seems obvious from this verse that God wants to speak to us.

Jesus said in John 10: 27 "My sheep listen to my voice."  That suggests we can learn to recognize God's voice when He's talking to us.

There are lots of examples in scripture of God speaking to people. Only rarely was it an audible voice. Most often He spoke to the heart, the same way He speaks to us. There are also lots of references that make it clear God wants to speak to us, and that we can actually hear his voice, if we are willing. God would not suggest that He wants to talk with us if it is not possible for us to hear Him.

There is some controversy in Christian circles about what some call "listening prayer", or even meditation. Some are concerned that it smacks of new age practices, or something out of eastern religions. There is no doubt that some forms of meditation could fall into that category, but that should not prevent us from simply taking time in prayer to meditate on God and quit talking so that He has an opportunity to actually speak to us. I believe that as we practice this kind of prayer we can learn to discern God's voice, and separate that from our own thoughts and impressions. 

Making sure it's God's voice we are hearing is important, but that's an issue we will address at another time. Suffice it to say for now that scriptures are clear that God wants to speak to us. Common sense tells us that hearing His voice is essential to good relationship and spiritual growth. So how about changing your prayer time to allow for some listening? 

EAGER TO SERVE

I'm going to get a bit personal today. I'm going to let you see into myself a bit in the hope it may be useful to you in some way.

Something really caught my attention as I was reading my Bible this morning.  In the book of Haggai, the prophet is challenging Zerubbabel (governor of Judah) and Joshua (the high priest) about the need to rebuild the temple.  In Haggai 2:3 he asks a very interesting question.  

"Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now?"

Wow! What a question!  As I read this verse I thought we could apply it to the "Church" in a broad sense, meaning the general Christian population.  We could apply it to a local congregation.  Or we could apply it to our ourselves as individuals. I always think spiritual challenges begin with ourselves.

I go through periods of time when a particular issue is a priority in my thinking and I tend to see everything through that prism. Lately it's been two things for me. Trusting God, and the state of my personal relationship with God. This verse in Haggai is speaking to me right where my mind is at these days.

There are some aspects of my spiritual life where I feel I have been growing over the years. I have such a long way to go, and there are lots of things I continue to struggle with, but in some ways I feel I am more mature spiritually than I was years ago. That's the good news.

On the other hand I look back over my life and wonder if there weren't times when I had a greater zeal for God. I can see times when my desire to please God and to serve Him were the most important things in my life. I can honestly say at those times I would do whatever He asked me to do. Is that where I am today? The words of Haggai challenge me to look back on where I used to be and compare it to today.

Certainly age makes a difference. In my sixties I don't have quite the energy or the brashness of my younger days, when I was ready and eager to take on any challenge. On the other hand, I am also not ready for "the home" just yet, and there are still lots of areas where I can be productive in serving God. 

Now here's where I want to be careful to express myself very clearly. I am not trying to put you (or me, for that matter) on a guilt trip where we always feel like what we are doing is not good enough and we must be doing more, more, more.  I am also not encouraging us to compare ourselves to others so that we feel badly we are are not doing as much as that other person. I simply have a question that I am asking of myself, and of you. Am I as eager and willing as I once was to do whatever God asks me personally to do? 

God knows all about my age, energy, health, abilities, etc.. He doesn't ask me or anyone do something beyond what they are able, or what He is going to enable them to do. He is not likely to ask me to do the same things He did when I was thirty-five. On the other hand I do have time and resources and abilities that He can use. When He asks for them am I willing, even anxious, to give - like I used to be?

At this moment I am comfortable that I am doing exactly what God has called me to do. It feels right for this point in my life and I don't have any sense inside that I'm holding back. Except in this. I don't find myself waking each day with an anxiousness to serve God, asking Him "Lord, How can I serve you today? What more can I do to make my life count?"

I used to do that. I was never satisfied, always feeling like I could serve God more or better. Today I am more comfortable than that and I wonder sometimes if it's a problem.

Pleasing God is not about running around doing stuff He never intended for us to do, or feeling guilty that we're not doing more. It is about being able to say "I am certain in my heart that I am living and serving exactly as God would have me do today." 

I'm actually feeling pretty okay about myself as far as that goes. My question for me is more along these lines. If tomorrow God asks for something more or different or bigger, am I zealous enough to say "Lord, whatever you want." I used to be. The words of Haggai are causing me to examine my heart.