Jesus wants:
- to be glorified so the Father is glorified
- for us to to know the one true God by knowing the One God sent, and thus have eternal life
- for us to be set apart by God, for God
- for us to be kept in the Father's name
- for us to be kept from the evil one
- for us to be sanctified in the truth
- for us to be brought into the fullness of joy
Whenever I read through John 17, I feel so overwhelmed at the intimacy of Jesus' prayer because in the midst of the shared desires of the Father and Son, since before the world began, Christ places us. He prays on our behalf, not out of obligation, not out of obedience, but out of desire.
As I examine my own prayers three times a day for Sonshine, the staff, the churches, campers, weather conditions, unity, support, etc., I keep asking myself what do I want, what are my desires, through these prayers. Somedays, I pray out of obedience or obligation, but I want to consistently pray out of desire. Over and over, at every point Darrell made, I kept thinking about praying as Jesus' does on behalf of the students and campers coming, on behalf of staff members, on behalf of our admin team. Every thing Jesus wants for us, I kept saying: "This is what I want for campers and staff this summer."
But what I found so essential to Christ's prayer is that he prays for these things, and then goes to the cross. He prays and then makes a way for these to happen. Before we were even aware of our need, Christ provided.
Overall, I was encouraged to seek to care for staff and churches with Jesus in desire, devotion, sacrifice, and joy so that the Father may be glorified in and through his people.
Love this Paulina. So often we pray for certain things: God, do this, do that. But we forget to pray for His desires. We say it sometimes, "Do what you will," "If it be your will," etc., but then we precede or follow that by all of these other requests. I don't know if you heard it (because it was so fast!), but DJ's prayer was literally one sentence: for God to be glorified.
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