That The World May Believe

 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me."

— John 17:20-21

Gracious Lord Jesus, my friend and my King,

Your prayer for all believers who would come to know you through the message of your disciples was that we would be one. The unity you pictured and prayed for was the same unity that you have with the Father, that we would be one in you and you would be one in us. Together, all believers would be one in Christ and one in the Father.

The result of all believers being one in you and the Father would be so that the world may believe that the Father has sent you. Your prayer to the Father continued, "that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them as you have loved me." When a world sees believers in complete unity, then they know that the Father sent you and that the Father loves them.

Gracious Lord, our world desperately needs two things: first, that believers in Christ would live in unity; second, that this world would know they have a Father in Heaven who loves them. May we provide good evidence today that those things are true. Your Church can live in unity. And, there is a Father in Heaven who is perfect in every way and loves this world relentlessly.

— In Jesus' Name I pray, Amen!

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