Stay on the Line!

[Read:  John 17-18]

[John 17:1-26]  "The Lord's Prayer" is recorded in these verses.  (What we've been led to believe to be "The Lord's Prayer," found in Matthew 6:9-13, is simply an "outline" for prayer that Jesus  taught to His disciples.)   This prayer in John Chapter 17 speaks of 3 petitions: 

Vs. 1-5 is a petition Jesus spoke for Himself.  It is not selfish, since His desire is to glorify His Father.   

Vs. 6-19 He asks that the disciples be sanctified (through the Word); that they may be as one; He asks His Father to keep them from evil.  

Vs. 20-26  In His final petition Jesus prayed for the unity of all believers of subsequent generations.  The oneness He requested was not an "organizational" unity, but of "spiritual" unity.

1st He prayed for Himself.  He wanted His life to glorify His Father in heaven.  All that He did, all that He demonstrated, was to give honor and glory to His Father.

2ndly He prayed for His disciples.  He prayed they be kept from the evils of this world.  He prayed they be made clean through the Word and set apart for the work of the ministry.

3rd He prayed for all believers--and all those to come.

Jesus prayed this powerful prayer leading up to The Garden scene.  Then He prayed in The Garden--more earnestly and more privately --just prior to His betrayal and arrest.  Jesus truly was a man who "prayed without ceasing!"  Prayer was His "power line!"

We are famous in the church for forming "prayer chains;" however, chains can be broken--but power lines are woven together into a "3-cord" (The Father, Son, and Holy Chost).  That's the answer to having power in our prayer life. 

Stay connected to your source of power....stay "on-the-line" and your life will turn out fine!