Tuesday 26 May 2020

May 26: John 17:11-12

Key Verse: John 17:11
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.

Devotion:
In recent weeks we have talked about the love Christ has for us and previous to that we looked at how God has asked us to love one another; so one more about the love Jesus had and knew that He had to uphold above everything! When Jesus prayed before He was to be taken away and punished in such a horrible way, He lifted up those around Him in prayer. He knew God had given Him charge over the disciples and He knew He must protect them in order to for the correct outcome to be fulfilled.

Whilst Jesus was with the disciples, He was able to protect them from harm, but He also had to make sure Judas Iscariot would be allowed to betray Him. He was doing this out of love, love for the people around Him and love for the whole world as He put into place everything required to cover the sin of the rest of us!

It is this love He wants us to extend toward other as well, a love which will take love first in order to uphold what is righteous and what needs to be done. This was not a political statement or move, but a prayer out of love for all of us. He wanted to make doubly sure the people He had been able to mix with were going to be protected by God from this point onward. Jesus had been able to see the power of a personal relationship with another person, one which promoted love.

This prayer was to extend that personal relationship between God and everyone. To define the love God has for us. Previous to this we had not had such a public and open display of His love on a personal level; we had seen God protecting the people of Israel over and over again, but now it was for the relationship between Him and every person on earth – you and I included!

Points to Ponder:
Do you now see the love Jesus has for us all?

Will you extend that love to the people around you?