It’s Your Final Days on Earth, What Do You Pray About?
Today’s Verse
”For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”(2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV).
Today many around the country celebrate Good Friday. As we go into the weekend, we are mindful of what this day represents to Christians. This is the day to recall Jesus’ sacrifice.
If you are the Son of God…
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”(Matthew 4:1 ESV).
We have been studying the lives of the Patriarchs and the formation of Israel. As we look at the ancient world, we fast-forward to the event that would start the final take-down of the kingdom of the dragon. It would change all the rules of the game. For this was the event that all of history pivoted on - and our Patriarchs longed to see.
“None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (1 Corinthians 2:8 ESV).
The Seed War began in Genesis 3:15. When Christ came to earth, the dragon suspected, but didn’t know for sure if Jesus was the Messiah. And Jesus wasn’t about to let him know, until the time was right.
The dragon (Satan, the devil) knew that a human Jew would eventually be born at a certain time as prophesied in scripture. That’s why Herod - acting under the spiritual influence of evil - tried to kill all the baby boys when it was reported to him that a “king” had been born.
“Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
After His birth, Jesus grew up, and just before His public ministry, He was baptized. God announced from heaven that this was His beloved Son. After that Jesus was taken away to the wilderness for a time of testing.
“And the tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ ”(Matthew 4:3 ESV).
Jesus never revealed His identity to the tempter - the devil. And now here in those final moments on earth, Jesus knew who He was; why He was here; and what would happen after He came back.
It was during this final time on earth that Jesus prayed His second to the last prayer for all of His people.
Today, we will read this prayer. Think about what this means to you as a child of God.
John 17
“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
“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. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.
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. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.
Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
“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. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”(John 17).
Amen.
“…we might become the righteousness of God.”
We are loved by someone who was willing to take the punishment for every sin that was committed across all time and give us a life of righteousness instead. Jesus was innocent. We are guilty.
As we consider Jesus death, we are blessed that He included all of us who “believe in me through their word.” Jesus prayed for you just before he was murdered. That is the kind of love that we have in Jesus. There is nothing in this world that can ever be more glorious than that.
Have a blessed weekend, and if you celebrate the Resurrection, I pray that you will have a renewed sense of gratitude for the salvation that is ours when we believe.
Next week we will continue our study into the journey of Israel…
Today’s Prayer
Father, how can we ever repay you for such a wonderful gift? You have made a way for us to live in peace and hope with an eternal existence in your coming kingdom free from wrath and condemnation. We are free. In you, we have such great hope. Today, as we watch evil increasing, we pray that we can truly become your righteousness so that our lives overcome the evil. We don’t want to play church Father. We want to display the glory of your Son, our Messiah, so that the world will know there is hope; that we are The Church. This weekend, we remember the sacrifice and the glory. We remember this gift of salvation that came at a very high cost. It should have been us who hung on the cross.How great is the love and mercy you have shown us. We are the guilty ones Father. We bow before you today and ask for forgiveness and we offer forgiveness to all who have sinned against us. I also pray for all today who have strayed from you that they run back into your arms where you are waiting to hold them and welcome them. Get them out of the pig sty and bring them back to you. We love you Father with all our heart, soul, and mind. Help us to fulfill our task of loving others as you love us. Amen. All honor and glory and praise to You ❤️
