The Church needs unity!
I’m writing a series of prayers for the Church, offering a prayer on a different topic each week. So far, I’ve prayed for awakening, transformational leaders, urgency, hope, health, compassion, and action.
In John 17, Jesus prayed for all who would ever follow him …
I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. I pray that they also will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. I’ve given them the glory that you gave me so that they can be one just as we are one. I’m in them and you are in me so that they will be made perfectly one. Then the world will know that you sent me and that you have loved them just as you loved me. (John 17.21-23, Common English Bible)
Jesus prayed we would be one, perfectly one.
O God, when you created humankind, you said it wasn’t good for man to be alone. You desire to be in relationship with us, your creation. We are amazed, and grateful.
Thank you for inviting us to live in relationship with you and with others. You want us to live in unity and community, focused on loving you and our neighbors. You want us, with one heart and mind, to be engaged in the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ.
Help us to do life together, to not be so independent, self-absorbed, and self-sufficient. Make us one with you, and one with each other. Make us one so the world will know Jesus is God’s Son and that he is the Savior of the world!
Amen.