Week One

“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. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

-John 17:20-23 (New International Version)

John 13-17 are considered the Farewell Discourse of Jesus. They include the final words that Jesus speaks to his disciples before his arrest and crucifixion. But as we come to John 17, the last words that Jesus speaks to his disciples are not instructions or teaching, instead, he says a prayer over them. Jesus himself knew the power of prayer, and he lifted up his disciples in prayer. At the same time, Jesus lifted up in prayer “all who would believe in him through them.” As followers of Jesus Christ, we can trust that Jesus was praying for us as well.

Jesus prays that all of his followers in every time and every place “may be one as we are one.” Jesus prays that we might be united as brothers and sisters in his love. He prays that we might be surrounded by and drawn into the love of the Father and Son. What a gift to know that Jesus has prayed for us! We also pray that the global church might join hearts together to worship the Lord, “one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all,” as the apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians.

Our prayer this first week is that the Global Gathering theme “That the World May Know” will take root in the hearts of the participants. We pray that Christians may stand together in the love of Christ, so that the world may experience the goodness and grace of Almighty God.