Monday, August 24, 2026

Opening Scripture

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!” Revelation 7:9-12

Opening Prayer

Gracious Heavenly Father, you are holy and exalted! May your kingdom come and your will be done in my life, home, and community,  just as it is in Heaven. Help me to trust you today to meet all of my needs. Help me to forgive others just as you have forgiven me. Help me to resist temptation and overcome the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Daily Bible Reading

John 17:20-26

“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 – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Reflection  

Today’s passage concludes “The Lord’s Prayer.” In this high, priestly communion with the Father, Jesus prays for Himself, then His apostles. In this final section, Jesus prays for His future followers: you and me! We are the ones who have believed in Jesus through their message.

Jesus could pray this prayer because He knew that the mission would succeed! He knew that His very human, very flawed apostles would faithfully live out their respective callings in the power of the Holy Spirit. He knew the Spirit would come at Pentecost. He knew that the Father’s great plan of redemption would accomplish what He intended.

As such, Jesus could pray confidently for the successive generations of disciples who would become His Church. This assurance was absolutely vital for Jesus because He was about to endure incredible suffering, heart-wrenching betrayal, and an excruciating death. He could faithfully navigate the dark coming hours, firm in the knowledge that God’s eternal plan of salvation would be fulfilled.

This verbal prayer by Jesus – hands raised and face lifted to Heaven – in the presence of His apostles was a source of encouragement for them as well. For their Rabbi, Master, Messiah to pray to the Father on behalf of “those who will believe in me through their message,” indicated they would be successful in their mission.

Jesus makes a remarkable request and statement in His prayer. “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 – so that they may be brought to complete unity.”

To the degree that a follower of Jesus is communing with the mysterious Trinitarian Fellowship – through the love of the Father, the mediation of the Son, and the guidance of the Spirit – we experience the “unity” Jesus describes.

The word “glory” (doxa) here describes the divine splendor, majesty, radiance, and magnificence that Jesus embodied during His earthly ministry. At the beginning of this gospel, John declares on behalf of all the apostles, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

Jesus’ disciples are invited to participate in His glory through His sanctifying work in our lives. “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Peter 1:3-4).

What a privilege! What a blessing! What an honor!

Flourishing Habit

Flourishing Christians

Jesus’ primary concern for those who would believe in Him is that they would be unified. “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 – so that they may be brought to complete unity.”

The unity within the Body of Christ – the Church – is intended to be an earthly reflection of the divine unity that exists among the Godhead. The “Three-in-Oneness” of the Trinity recognizes the unique function and Personhood of Father, Son, and Spirit within the mysterious and transcendent Union that is Almighty God.

Jesus prayed for His future followers, who would one day comprise that glorious heavenly host referenced in our Opening Scripture. He wasn’t praying for a single, worldwide, ecumenical church in which doctrinal heresy would be excused or unbiblical theology tolerated. He wasn’t praying for a universal, lukewarm, powerless people who are high on tolerance and low on Spirit-led conviction. He wasn’t praying for generations of disciples who were immature, unanchored, and tossed about by every whim of popular sentiment.

Jesus was praying for those who would be born again by grace through faith in His sacrificial death, temples of the Holy Spirit, adopted into the Father’s forever family, living on mission as His representatives, salt and light in a lost world. Jesus said, “I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.”

As we saw last Saturday, Jesus’ disciples have been called out of this world. Those who declare “Jesus is Lord” become citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. As Jesus clearly states, “they are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” Paul talks a lot about this experience of being in the world, but not of the world.

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

There is a big difference between unity and uniformity. Followers of Jesus are called to live in voluntary harmony, not enforced standardization. We are called to live holy and godly lives as we look forward to the day of the Lord’s return “and speed its coming” (2 Peter 3:11).

Followers of Jesus are called to “be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:2-6).

How does knowing that Jesus prayed for you inform your perspective?

Ask God to draw near to you, refresh your spirit, and empower you to serve Him today.

Ask God to put someone on your heart that you need to pray for or reach out to today.

This week’s collective prayer: Lord, I pray for lost friends, family members, and colleagues. May they hear Your call to salvation in fresh new ways this week and give their lives to Jesus. Amen.

You can do more than pray after you’ve prayed, but you can’t do more than pray until you’ve prayed!