Taking Jesus' prayer here in John 17 as an example can have its limitations. On the surface level, it can be easy to simply change the content of my prayers. Boom. Application done. To me that is insufficient. It does not address the deeper issue of pride. Absolutely praying for others can be and will be a great starting point. But alongside that, my application is two-fold.The first application i...

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 woul...

Having already taken note of the emphasis this passage takes on unity, something that was particularly on the disciples' minds was how Jesus prayed. They ask Jesus directly in Luke 11 to teach them how to pray. It was notable what Jesus saw as important to pray for. The fact that Jesus prays for unity as one of the disciples already took off and was about to betray them is also notable.As the orig...

44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church dai...

Scripture often alludes to how Jesus would get alone in the place of prayer. Some of His disciples would actually get frustrated with Him sneaking off to be with the Father because people were in need of Him. But that never stopped Jesus from developing a robust prayer life. We see the evidence of that in this section here.This is one of the last prayers Jesus prays as He anticipates going to the ...

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I have glorified You on th...

Meditate on what it means that Jesus has overcome the world and give Him thanks. Thank Him for salvation. Think of how He has sanctified you and give Him thanks for those works as well. Make praise a practice today.......

I have found for myself and many around me that one of the things that keeps us from joy is being heavily problem focused. We complain and gossip in our prayer requests and then complain and gossip in our prayers. It is not an issue to bring these things before the Lord, but I would encourage us to approach with genuine faith and thankfulness. Joy accompanies a heart of thankfulness. Imagine for a...

Joy is a heavily recurring theme for me in my study of Scripture. Not only do I see joy brought up all throughout Scripture, I se that joy is something that should rule over circumstances for the believer. When I look around, even at my own life, I can see how circumstances rule over joy. Jesus promises something really powerful to His disciples. They will see Him again and rejoice, and no one wil...

The heart that Jesus has in this lesson is that His people would not lose hope. Persecution can certainly bring people down. As we have already looked at the disciples' reactions to persecution in Acts, we saw that they truly did not lose heart. They held on to the hope Jesus gave them, but it was not until after He had resurrected that they held on to that hope.People rising from the dead was a r...

Hindsight is 20/20 and that is certainly the case for the disciples in this passage. It is made clear that the disciples really weren't sure what Jesus has been getting at with this departing language He has been using. They wanted to ask Him about it but held back. Yet still Jesus addresses these things. But the promises He offers is an explanation to what has been going on with the disciples sin...

In this passage, the disciples are discussing amongst themselves concerning what Jesus says about His departing. Knowing they sought to ask Him about it, He gives way for them to discuss it with Him. He speaks into what will seem to be a moment of defeat for them but victory to the world. The world will be rejoicing and celebrating while the disciples will be mourning and weeping. But it will not ...

16 “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.”17 Then some of His disciples said among themselves, “What is this that He says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?” 18 They said therefore, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while...

I encourage you to pray that you would see truth. Pray that the Spirit of Truth would guide you into truth in light of your current circumstances. If you are facing trials, tribulations, persecution or the like, meet with Lord and ask Him to show you what is true. If your circumstances are good right now, pray that the Lord would highlight truth to you in that. It is not a question of if, but when...

Certainly it is my responsibility to make sure I am not deceived. Certainly I need to be certain I confront lies in my life. Certainly it is wholly my responsibility to keep me from the falsehoods the enemy throws at me. There is truth to those statements, but they stop short of the solution. It is indeed my responsibility to be sure I am not deceived, but it is by the truth that lies are confront...