Day 33: We Claim the Love of Jesus
Adapted from John 17:1-26. On the day before He was betrayed, Jesus prayed for us: Father, the hour has come to glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom You have given Him, He gives eternal life. Based on this prayer, I boldly stake my claim for eternal life that I may truly come to know the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom the Father sent. Jesus glorified the Father on earth, having accomplished the work that was given to Him. I claim the promise of Jesus who asked on my behalf, that I am kept safe in His name, and I am guarded so that I will not perish. I ask, as Jesus did on my behalf, not to be taken out of the world, but to be kept from the evil one. I ask to be sanctified in truth as I believe through the Word. I pray that the glory given to Jesus will someday be mine and that I will be one with Jesus and the Father. I look forward to beholding God’s glory. I claim His Love in me as the Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in me through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Yesterday was a long drive from NH to VA. I missed my usual discipline of writing a daily devotion and listened to various news stations as we traveled. However, upon reading this prayer I remembered how deeply thankful I am that Jesus prayed for us the night before he gave his life for us. God values us—even as God knows we will disappoint, desert and defy God. Why? Why does God value us more than we value each other and ourselves? What causes God to value us even when we do not value God?
There is quite a bit of rhetoric these days telling us which people to value. One group of people castigates the other group of people—and each group thinks his or her group is correct. When I listen, as I did yesterday, to the news on all of the various radio stations I tell myself—“do not allow anyone to teach you to hate.” What does it mean to be sanctified in truth? What does it mean to be “kept safe in God’s name? Yesterday, I was told by someone that reading the Bible was not something that person did. I live in a state that has the lowest church attendance in the country. The intellectual arrogance of human beings thinking they care more about God’s creations and God’s creatures than God does is rampant. I feel deeply sad that Jesus walked on this earth to show us how to live in peace, that he suffered and prayed for us so that we might be sanctified in truth and kept safe in God’s name—and that he did all of this knowing that we would challenge him every step of the way as petulant children will do.
Nevertheless, I pray for the ability to claim God’s love for all of humanity; to allow no one to teach me to hate; and to always love and care for those who do not do not love or care for me.