“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
Lord Jesus, we are so grateful you constantly care, advocate, and pray for us. For surely, all your prayers will eventually be fulfilled in a most profound and beautiful way.
You don’t pray for our uniformity, but unity—for our great diversity as your Bride to become an aromatic bouquet of grace. Though this will only be fully realized when you return, right now, you call us to demonstrate the reconciling power of the Gospel to the watching world.
Only your love, and the power of the Holy Spirit, can turn our hostility into hospitality, our meanness into kindness, our striving against each other into serving one another.
Only the Gospel can retrofit the walls that divide us into bridges that heal us. Open the heavens and pour out your Spirit on us, Lord Jesus. We are desperate for revival. Humble us, and gentle us.
Forgive us for not working harder at loving each other as you love us, forgiving each other as you forgive us, and accepting one another as you accept us. Nothing can justify or normalize our prejudices, bigotry, and tribalism. So very Amen we pray, in your tender and triumphant name.