John 17 | What's the lesson for me today?

As I analyze the structure of the prayer itself, I have to admit, I am convicted. Jesus was able to rest securely in His relationship with the Father and focus the attention of His prayer on others. There is a degree that I already knew that I can be too self-consumed in my times of prayer. As anyone would be, I am concerned about the events in my life. But I find that I doubted that anything would be done about those things. Jesus was secure where I was not.

There are more deeply rooted issues in some of that, but the thought already had occurred to me as I was preparing a teaching for the Young Adults on prayer. I struggled to believe that the Lord would intervene in certain things. I would assume His answer and forgo prayer at times all together. In other cases, because I was insecure, my attention would be entirely on myself. The Lord had already been stirring in me this understanding as I came to John 17. There are times in prayer where I can wrestle through those things pertaining to me, but that should not make up the entirety of my prayer time.

I mentioned earlier a deeper rooted issue. People talk about what they care about. People pray about what they really care about. Jesus prayed for others. I was concerned for myself. There is the deep rooted issue. Scripture can has a really good ability at helping us recognize how self-centered we can be. This passage did exactly that for me. The issue is centered on love. Do I love the Lord first? Do I prefer others over me? The focus of my prayer life may challenge some of those things. Again, it is not that I can never pray for what's going on in my life. I just need to be intent on praying for others.

What lesson are you taking from this?