THE CHRISTIAN WALK

Thursday, February 25, 2021

A PRAYER FOR UNITY

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“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.”

“Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world.”

“Righteous Father, though the world does not know You, I know You, and they know that You have sent Me. I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me may be in them and that I Myself may be in them.”

John 17:20-26

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

We live in a world that seems as divided as ever. Rather than living as one, caring and sharing with one another, we’re too often fractured and oppositional. In America, our currency carries a common slogan, “In God We Trust”, and therein lays the answer to all our dissension issues. God isn’t front and center in the way we interact and deal with the challenges that face us all. In fact, in more and more cases, God isn’t even as much as an afterthought because He isn’t considered or consulted at all. A growing majority of people aren’t seeing God as an option.

I think Jesus fully knew what was ahead for the world after He departed it. For the words He prayed for all believers, the final of three prayers found within John 17, carry one main theme: unity. Look again at the prayer words of Jesus here:

“Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world.”

Fresh off praying for His specially chosen disciples, Jesus turns to all who would place their belief in Him as Savior and His deep desire that they would live with a strong sense of togetherness. Indeed, Jesus prayed that all Christ believers would be One.

How close did Jesus want this “oneness” to be?

His desire was that all Christians would be as united to one another as Jesus was to the Father God He prayed to.

How well are we as a Christian community meeting that hope that Jesus had?

I’m afraid, we have a lot of work to do, and we must do it because Jesus wishes for it to become a reality. That’s why He prayed for it.

So how do we get to that place? How can we turn things around as Christians to where we are truly one body of believers centered on one Savior with no barriers or discord between us?

Jesus gives us the answer for He prayed for all Christians to be in God and Jesus. To be in with them is the same as saying we are in a close relationship, individually seeking to be one with our Father and the Son He sent to save us. Jesus gave us the very glory of God when He saved us, glory grounded in the great love that our Father had for us, a love so deep that it led Him to sacrifice His only Son so we might have the chance to receive the promise of salvation and a new life with Him forever. In turn, we get to help others experience that same glory for themselves when we get to work doing what Jesus commanded us to do, sharing the gospel and making disciples of others.

Do you see what Jesus is getting to here?

We can only be united as a Christian community when we place Christ first, period. Not denominational or doctrinal differences. Not church polity. Not a single separator that the world might consider appropriate for segregation. Our sole focus should be Jesus and Jesus alone.

Can you imagine what the Christian church would look like if we did this as Jesus desired?

It would be nothing short of amazing and a blessing of the highest order.

In the end translation, Jesus prayed for it and the only thing getting in the way of His prayer being answered is us.

That’s right.

We only need to look in the mirror as a collective Christian body and we’ll see the answer to the problem of disunity. It starts with us and the road to get to where Jesus wants us to be, the place where Jesus prayed we would get to, is through Him and Him alone. He (Jesus) proclaimed Himself the Way and the Truth and the Life, the only One who can bring us to God the Father (John 14:6). It’s time for us all to place our full focus on our Savior and be one with Him, the One who is one with God.

If we do this, then we as Christians can lead the world to where it needs to be by first showing unity within our own ranks and then offering a chance for unity to others who would like to be a part of the movement, others who have no current relationship with Jesus.

So what are we waiting for?

It’s time to get to work and to turn things around. God, our Father, and Jesus, His Son, are standing by to help guide and direct us but we have to put them first if that’s going to happen. The road to unity isn’t that far off. We just need to start traveling the proper path.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

A PRAYER FOR PROTECTION

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“I have revealed You to those whom You gave me out of the world. They were Yours; You gave them to Me and they have obeyed Your word. Now they know that everything You have given Me comes from You. For I gave them the words You gave Me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from You, and they believed that You sent Me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those You have given Me, for they are Yours. All I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine. And glory has come to Me through them. 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. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name You gave Me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.”

“I am coming to You now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of My joy within them. I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As you sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify Myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”

John 17:6-19

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Death is a certainty. In fact, it can be more than a certainty than life itself, right?

I say this because we all know we’re going to die. It’s an inevitable part of the human experience. But life, this is more of an unknown. No one can say for sure that they know they’ll live through any one day and certainly there are stories every day of someone who came awake in the morning in perfectly good health only to have a sudden health emergency or an accident of some kind bring their life story to a close.

It’s these truths, the certainty of death and the uncertainty of life, that should motivate everyone to seal their future by believing in Jesus as Savior now. By doing so, there is no need to worry about when life ends because life really won’t. It will continue forever, free from all the worldly hardships and afflictions we deal with now.

But that’s another message for a different day. Today, we’re looking at the second of three special prayers Jesus speaks before heading to Gethsemane’s garden and His arrest. In it, we find Jesus concerned, not for His own well being, but rather for the protection of His faithful, hand-selected disciples He was leaving behind. His words are a primer for any person who might be nearing death and concerned for their loved ones who might be left behind. Look again at Jesus’ words here:

Note three important things about this prayer of protection, two things we should incorporate into our own prayers when faced with a similar situation.

First, Jesus knew His future was set, despite death looming on the horizon. Yes, He was going to suffer deeply, mentally attacked for what He believed and then brutalized physically before nailed to a cross and lifted up to hang and die. Any mere human would be self consumed with worry, anxiety, and dread over what was ahead but we know that Jesus was no ordinary human. He was the very Son of God.

So Jesus wasn’t worried for Himself because He knew death would not be the end. Instead, He would be resurrected, rising up out of the tomb before ascending to once again dwell with His Father God in heaven. His future was secure.

But Jesus’ disciples weren’t following Him to His heavenly home. He was leaving them behind and He knew they would face grave danger just as He was about to. He knew His disciples would be hated because they were in the world but not of it, just as their Master Jesus was. And upon being emboldened by their false belief they had eliminated Jesus, the Jewish religious authorities would certainly come after Jesus’ followers next with the hope of eradicating Christianity altogether.

This is what leads us to the second element we find in Jesus’ prayer of protection. It was not self centered because Jesus knew He had nothing to worry about and this allowed Him to focus His concern on His disciples. Note that He gained great comfort in His prayer by knowing His Father God had the power to do all things, especially protect.

While Jesus was with His disciples, He provided the protection. He also provided instruction, showing His followers how to be obedient to God’s word while revealing Him to them. He also made sure His disciples knew that everything was an outflow from God, that He was the Master Orchestrator and Provider of all things.

Jesus had spent a lot of time educating and mentoring His disciples but now He was departing and so we find Him asking His Father to place a covering over His faithful ones, the followers who had been a part of His inner circle for three years running. He asked His Father to use the very power of His name to do this but to use that power while the disciples remained in the world. In other words, Jesus wasn’t asking God to take His disciples away from the world and the trouble they were going to experience. Rather, He allowed God to dictate the circumstances as He wished. Then as in now, God knows the plans He has for His people and He surely had future plans for Jesus’ disciples after their Savior departed. Jesus knew His followers would be in good hands.

And this leads me to the third element we see in a prayer of protection.

For these prayers are not self centered because of the promise and assurance of salvation at death. They also are prayers of complete trust in the power of God to protect anyone dear being left behind. And as we see in this third element, we find a prayer of protection carrying with it a component of concession, a concession that understands fully who people belong to.

In the end translation of things, all people belong to God, period. Jesus knew this and confessed it. The disciples belonged to God, first and foremost. God had loaned out the disciples to form Jesus’ special traveling ministry team and now Jesus was simply returning the care and protection of His followers to the One they truly belonged to. Jesus knew His disciples were as much His Father’s children as He was and so there was no need to worry because His followers would be in God’s hands, the best hands that anyone could be left in. Therefore, Jesus could depart and do so in peace.

We’re all going to die. Even Jesus did and He was the One and only Son of God.

But through His prayer of protection over His disciples, Jesus shows us how to pray for our beloved ones when out time comes to face the end of this worldly existence.

First, we need not worry about ourselves. Through Jesus, our future is secure and so we can focus our prayers on those we leave behind, asking God for their protection in our absence.

Second, we pray these selfless prayers of protection over our loved ones, knowing fully that God’s power can more than keep them safe. Our loved ones couldn’t safeguarded by anyone greater or better than God Himself.

Finally, we pray a prayer of protection, acknowledging that our loved ones don’t really belong to us but God and God alone. He simply loaned them out to us so we could love and share life with them. And we realize that they are His children as much as we are.

I give thanks to Jesus for this prayer and how it has equipped me to die when my time comes. It permits me to enter my salvation promise, free from worry over my family left here on earth. Whether my mother, my wife, my two daughters, or my grandchildren, the truth is that they all belong to God and God alone. They are His children and we know any good Father loves, cares, and protects His children.

Whether in death or in life, God is always in control. He is always with us and for us. And so, like Jesus, we have no need to worry.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

ELEMENTS OF SELF PRAYER

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

After Jesus said this, He looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify You. For You granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those You have given Him. Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. I have brought You glory on earth by finishing the work You gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began.”

John 17:1-5

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

It’s very important to study the life story of Jesus synoptically which simply means you read across all four gospel accounts in order to gain the fullest and knowledge of everything Jesus did and when He did it.

It makes complete sense if you think about it. If you were to ask four individuals to write up their experiences over time with you, I am pretty sure those four accounts would be similar in some places but very different in others. There will also be accounts found in one or more of the accounts that aren’t found anywhere in the others. This is exactly what you find when you study the gospels written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and as we’ll see in today’s passage as well as devotions over the next two days, John tells of three very special prayers that Jesus delivers before He heads to the garden of Gethsemane and an appointment with arrest. You won’t find these in any of the other three gospels.

Interestingly, this first prayer that Jesus speaks is for Himself. It’s something that might be alien for a lot of us because it just seems like we fail to do it much, certainly far less than we pray for others. It just seems unnatural for us to ask the Lord to intercede for ourselves. And frankly, maybe some people are reluctant to adopt self prayer because it feels almost selfish, like it’s wrong to focus on oneself when there are so many others who need prayer more.

But the way we need to look at this matter is that if Jesus did it, then it must not only be acceptable and allowable, but something we really need to do. And as we see so often with our Savior, He takes the lead in showing us how to pray for ourselves and reveals two important elements of this self prayer.

First, note that Jesus is praying in the moment. He knows what is just ahead as He would be arrested in mere hours and start walking the path of abject suffering and eventual death. His hour had come and He knew it.

As for us, we go through all sorts of life experiences as well and often times, those experiences carry suffering with them. During those times, we, like Jesus, should come before God in prayer during those hours when we face trials and trouble. After all, we read in Psalm 46:1 that our God is our refuge and a very present help in times of trouble. Jesus saw Him that way and so should we.

The second element of self prayer is found in the act of glorifying.

In His prayer, Jesus first asks His Father to glorify Him so He in turn could bring the Father glory. The request for God to elevate Him to a place of honor wasn’t grounded in Jesus wanting self importance. The Son wasn’t trying to steal the spotlight from His Father. Rather, He knew that if He was glorified then He would be able to glorify God and indeed, this is the way it played out, right?

For after Jesus gave up His Spirit on the cross and went to the tomb like any other dead person, on the third day, He was resurrected in power, not by His power but rather by the power of God Himself. Jesus eventually would proclaim that God had delegated authority over all people to Him, including the clout to bring people to eternal life, but none of that would have been possible if God had not resurrected Him. Therefore, Jesus’ resurrection really served to glorify a God who placed His full ability to do all things on display.

Coming before God in the hour of need and doing so with the intent of being glorified through answered prayer so we can in turn glorify the God who did the answering.

These are the basic elements of self prayer, self prayer that Jesus demonstrated just before He journeyed to the cross. Tomorrow, we’ll look at how Jesus prayed for His hand chosen disciples.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

Monday, February 22, 2021

THE GREAT OVERCOMING

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

You know, every day I am blessed to be alive I realize one thing more and more.

I’m glad this world is not my final destination point.

Yes, there are many things to love about the world, particularly the gift of family and the service one gets to perform in the name of the Lord through the church or other opportunities. But there are the other matters of the world that offset these blessings, major matters like sin and evil. These forces are growing stronger by the minute and it’s of little surprise when we consider that less and less people are placing their belief and Jesus. Refuse to believe in the Lord and you are asking Satan to rule and reign in your life instead. And a world where Satan is having his way is no world I want to remain a part of.

Indeed, in our world today, we find trouble and ample amounts of it. The same was true more than 2,000 years ago as Jesus concluded His final message to His disciples. We see Him promise His followers that they would have trouble while in the world but they could find peace in Him, the One who Isaiah foretold would be the Prince of Peace.

Bad times were just ahead for Jesus and after His crucifixion, the spotlight of persecution and elimination would be shifted onto the disciples by the Jewish religious authorities. Emboldened by their assumed eradication of Jesus, the next logical step would be to get rid of all His followers. If this could be accomplished, Christianity could be stopped in its tracks, or at least that was the hope of the Sanhedrin comprised of the Jewish religious leaders.

Did Jesus mention that there would be trouble for His followers?

Well, trouble did come as the disciples began carrying on the work of Jesus following His ascension. After the stoning of Stephen, a broader persecution ensued and this caused the disciples to disperse and move into the regions of Judea and Samaria. And with persecution still running rampant, we find the apostle Paul moving the gospel outside Judea and Samaria to other parts of the world during his missionary journeys, parts of the world where people weren’t always ready for a new religious philosophy to move in and threaten the status quo.

Yes, since those days until now, persecution has been synonymous with Christians doing the work of Jesus. Christ believers still experience great trouble in the world, sometimes at the cost of their lives and this shouldn’t be a shock to anyone. For Jesus Himself foretold this when He proclaimed His followers would be hated because people hated Him first. It was a proverbial trickle-down effect.

It’s all quite depressing if you think about it. After all, why would anyone want to be a Christian if they are signing up for mistreatment and abuse at the hands of others, simply because of what they believe?

Well, the answer to this question comes in the final part of the closing verse of John 16.

For although Jesus suffered greatly, falsely accused and tried before the Sanhedrin before being brutally beaten and nailed to a cross to hang and die, in the end He experienced a great overcoming. The world was not His home and so God brought Him to where He belonged, sitting at the right hand of His throne in authority over everything in heaven and on earth.

Friends, this is why we can take heart while in this world, despite all the trouble it brings, just as the disciples could in Jesus’ day. For just as Jesus overcame the world, so too will everyone who places their belief, hope, and trust in Him as Savior. In Christ, His followers know that no matter how bad things might get, the best is yet to come.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com