John 17

“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you, because you have given Him authority over all humanity, to give eternal life to all you have given Him”, vs 1,2,5,10.

What a wonderful personal prayer to pray and attitude to have each time we are faced with a difficult situation or person! Eternal life is to know the true God and His Son Jesus Christ, vs 3. We can say we know God only to the extent that we are walking in obedience to His commandments, vs 1 John 2:3. So, we can partake of eternal life, (which is a quality of life, and not just length of life, as those who go to hell will live eternally too) only to the extent that we walk in obedience to God’s commandments.

We glorify God by completing the work He has given us to do, vs 4. Jesus then mentions the work that He came to do, which included:
Revealing the Name of the Father to His disciples, so that the love with which the Father loved Jesus may be in them, vs 26.
Giving them God’s Word and teaching them to obey His Word, vs 6, so that they could understand that Jesus came from the Father, vs 7,8.

Praying on behalf of His disciples and for all those who would hear the word through them and believe in Jesus, vs 9,20, that they may be kept safe in the Father’s Name, when He leaves the world, so that they may be one, just like Jesus and the Father are one, and thus behold and partake of His glory so that the world would know that Jesus is indeed the saviour of the world, and that God loves all His children who believe in Jesus, just like He loves Jesus, vs 11,21-24. Thus none of them would be lost, except the son of perdition, vs 12.

Telling them everything the Father wanted them to know, so that their joy would be complete, vs 13

Praying that they may be kept safe from the evil one, and from the world, who on not having a revelation of who Jesus is) hates them, because they do not belong to the world vs 14-16,25.

Praying that they may be sanctified through the Word, which is the truth, just as Jesus sanctified Himself for their sakes, so that they too may be sanctified and be ready to go out into the world when He sends them, vs 17-19.

In every situation of life Jesus prayed for His disciples from an eternal standpoint, so that they would not lose out on partaking of eternal life.

His prayer points included, that they would know the Name of the Father, be sanctified by the word of truth by walking in obedience to the same, complete the work that God would have them do, be kept from the evil one and the world, that they would walk in unity and love each other, and thus, partake of God’s glory and that they would know that God loves them just like He loves Jesus!

Let us pray similarly, so that being rooted and grounded in love, we may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that we may be filled up to all the fullness of God, Ephesians 3:17-19, thus bringing glory to the Lord’s Name, and accomplishing our purpose in life, before we leave this earth. Amen.

Rowena Thomas
Mumbai, India.