Spiritual Disciplines

In the World but not of the World

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John 17:14-19 – “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

 Next time you are standing in line at the store, take a look at the magazine covers. Each magazine cover is someone’s idea of heaven. Everyone believes in heaven, by the way. It is just that for some people, heaven is a cat or a cigar or six-pack abs. For some people, heaven is their family or their entertainment or their stock portfolio. Jesus sent us into the world to get people who are chasing the wrong heaven that never satisfies and always ends, to start chasing the real heaven that only satisfies and never ends. But, if we are not careful we too start falling into the same trap that we are trying to rescue people from.

Jesus calls us to be in the world, but he calls us to be on mission in the world, which means our purposes for being in the world are different from the world’s purposes. And indeed these purposes will not be fulfilled if we become “of” the world while we are becoming “in” the world.

Jesus declares that he was sanctified from the world even though he was sent into it (John 17:19). Jesus is not saying that he was growing in holiness and diminishing in sin; no, he was perfectly holy and altogether without sin. Rather, what Jesus is saying is that he was set apart for the purposes of God and sent by God the Father into the world. To be set apart solely for God’s purposes in the world is what it means to be sanctified.

Sanctified in this context means “set apart.” Think, for example, about place settings in your home. The ladies reading this, especially the wives and mothers, will know exactly what I am talking about. Single guys, I know you are currently eating Hot Pockets with a spork, but when you get married, you will discover that there are special plates and special utensils for special occasions. In most family households, there are the dishes and utensils for common everyday use, and then there are the nice place settings for when company is over, or for holidays or anniversaries. These are special things set aside for special purposes.

If we are sanctified, we will go into the world on mission while not becoming “of the world”. Christians engage in sex, money, alcohol, community, and any other good thing the world abuses differently. This sort of living is often called counter-cultural living, and the gospel of the kingdom creates a counter-cultural community of missionaries.

For instance, Jesus is a friend to single women, but he does not lust, fornicate, or commit adultery. Jesus goes to parties, but he does not do Fortnite dances while drunk or high.

In one of my favorite missional verses in all of Scripture, Jesus prayerfully warns Christians that not only do they have two purposes in the world—to be sanctified (or set apart by God for his purposes) and sent into the world—but they also have two pitfalls in the world. There are two enemies of being a good missionary: being religious (too conservative) or rebellious (too liberal).

When Jesus prays, “Don’t take them out of the world,” he prays against religion. In our misunderstanding of sin and holiness, we think that if we don’t want to be tainted, we had better disengage from the world. So we separate ourselves. This disengaged kind of living only gets it half right. It takes the command “Be holy” very seriously, but it then takes this command and further extrapolates it into all kinds of man-made rules for holiness.

Furthermore, Jesus was hated by the world precisely because he was separated from the world while submerged in the world. His efforts were intended not to capitulate to the rebellion of the world, but rather call the world to repentance. Subsequently, those people in the world who remain unrepentant hated Jesus in his day and continue to hate him in our own day. They hated him because He stood against the world, even though He was only doing so out of love for people, inviting them to a better way of life through Him. Think of it this way, Christianity is a boat that moves through the water of this world but should not be taking in water. This is what it means to be in the world but not of the world.

Are you more prone to be rebellious and like the world or religious and not a missionary in the world?

Every Christian is a Missionary

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John 17:14-19 – “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

 Days before His death, Jesus stopped to pray that after He rose and returned to heaven that Christians would be missionaries.

Once upon a time, “missions” meant sending certain people overseas. What the church must do is recover our sense of mission for all of us, for the entire life of the church.

“Missions” is a calling for all of us. The prevailing theology used to say that the Church sends missionaries across the water to tribes of eccentric people who don’t know God. But we have tribes of eccentric people who don’t know God that we cross paths with every day. 

Every area of the world needs missionaries and all Christians need to be missionaries. This is why every Christian must love people, serve people, and engage people. This is why every Christian must learn local cultures and seek to contextualize the gospel in those cultures. Jesus did not command us to invite people to “come and see.” He commanded us to “go and tell.” In the same way that good missionaries to China learn the language, learn the customs, engage in the cultural narratives, and contextualize the gospel for the understanding of the Chinese people, part of our mission in all corners of the world and its contexts means listening to people, empathizing, reading the literature, pounding the cultural pavement, even understanding the entertainment.

The question before us is not “Are we missionaries?” The real question is “Are we good missionaries? Or bad ones?” Jesus helps us figure out how to answer this question with his words on being in the world but not of it.

We also learn from the example of Jesus’ own life as a missionary. We see in the Gospels that Jesus doesn’t interact with people on a superficial level. He knows the people – the tax collectors and the sinners, the Samaritans and the Romans, the community of his disciples from all walks of life and even the religious Pharisees and the political Sadducees – He lives among them and invests in relationships with them. He goes to their events and participates in their culture. He goes to weddings and parties. He enters other cultures (as in Samaria). Over and over, we see Jesus working hard to serve as the best missionary to ever live.

The essence of missional living is the emptying of self for the good of others. And, of course, Jesus illustrates the apex of self-emptying by taking upon himself the will of the Father in the atoning sacrifice of his body on the cultural symbol of shame: the cross.

With that sacrifice on the horizon, Jesus prays, “Father, just as you sent me, I am sending them”. Just as God has sent Jesus to a time and place, he has sent you to a time and place. And just as God sent Jesus to sacrifice for the love of the world, you are called to take up your cross, deny yourself, and love the world. Just as Jesus was a missionary, we are to be missionaries. And if God should move you to another place, you are to be a missionary there as well. Every day, wherever you go, remember that you are there on mission from Jesus and that there are people God has sent you to share the love and truth of Jesus with. Someone did this for you, and now you get to do the same for someone else.

How can you be a better missionary in the daily stuff of your normal life and relationships?

Jesus is About Joy

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John 17:13 – “But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.”

Jesus is about joy!

Nearing His death, Jesus paused to pray of Christians, “That they may have my joy”.

Simply put, the life of a Christian, like the life of Jesus, is not always marked by great comfort, wealth, health, ease, or simplicity. Nevertheless, it is filled with the presence of God and the purpose of God so that all we have, do, and endure can and will be used to glorify God and benefit others as it was with Jesus as he went to the cross. Consider this powerful passage from Philippians:

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross!  (2:1-8)

 

Those words were likely part of a hymn sung by the early church. So this meditation on the joy of Jesus was a worship song!

The Christian life is supposed to be one of joy. Not the kind of joy that most people seek, but the overflow of purposeful and passionate life lived in relationship with God by the power of the Holy Spirit in the example of Jesus to the glory of the Father. Any life lived by any other power following any other example for the glory of anyone or anything else cannot and will not result in joy. This explains why the most “successful” people are also often the most miserable.

Do not waste a single second of your life. Not even the bad parts, the dark parts. Do not put your life on autopilot when the going gets rough. Jesus is praying here in John 17 about a good life, not an easy life. There is a difference!

I will tell you who did not have hope, who lost hope—Judas. Jesus and Judas are the two examples of how to live one’s life. Jesus hung from a tree for the glory of God and the joy of the world, a precursor to his reigning in glory forever. Judas hung from a tree in his own noose, having gained some money and having lost his soul.

There is joy in knowing that your sins are forgiven, God’s love will never leave you, your eternal seat in heaven is guaranteed, and that this world is as close to hell as you will ever be and that one day soon you won’t be here anymore.

What is most joyful in your life right now that you can thank God for?

Did You Know that Jesus is Praying for YOU RIGHT NOW!?

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Who do you pray with? Who do you pray for? Who prays for you?

One of the surest ways to build a relationship is to pray with someone.

In the final days before His death on the cross, Jesus stops to pray for Himself (John 17:1-5) 2), Christians (John 17:6-19) 3), and non-Christians (17:20-26).

When praying for Christians in His day, and those of us who would join them in faith nearly 2000 years later, Jesus said this in John 17:9, “I am praying for them”.

If you are a Christian, Jesus was praying for you! How amazing is that! Headed to the cross to die for your sin and rise for your salvation, Jesus stopped to pray for you. You were on His mind and in His heart.

Amazingly, to this very day and at this very moment, Jesus is praying for you. Right now, Jesus is alive and speaking to God the Father and God the Spirit about you! The angels overhear their conversation and are dispatched for missions on the earth to help you and the rest of God’s people.

Hebrews 7:25 speaks of Jesus praying for you saying, “he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” The concept of an intercessor is someone who stands with you and for you so that you are not alone. Jesus does this for you continually.

Romans 8:34 says, “Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” Jesus knows your needs, sees your fears, understands your burdens and is your intercessory prayer warrior. Having been on the earth, He understands what you are going through. Now in the Kingdom, He prays for you by bringing your needs to the Father. God wants you to know that Jesus is praying for you so that you believe that He loves you, is for you, and working on your behalf constantly.

What would you guess Jesus is talking to the Father about today regarding you?

The Bible Has Proven True

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In the final days before His death on the cross, Jesus prayed His longest prayer. In His prayer, Jesus spoke of His confidence in the Bible. In John 17:17 Jesus prayed, “your word is truth”. In John 17:12, Jesus promised that “the Scripture might be fulfilled”.

Jesus was a Bible teacher who knew that His life would fulfill prophetic promises given hundreds and thousands of years prior. This proves that God both wrote the Bible through human authors and writes human history through human actors. The following are just some of the numerous Scriptures which Jesus fulfilled:

• 1000 B.C. – “my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me” (Psalm 41:9). Jesus was betrayed by his close friend Judas Iscariot.
• 500 B.C. – “they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’…So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter” (Zechariah 11:12–13). Judas betrayed Jesus and threw the money in the Temple before he hung himself.
• 1000 B.C. – “…they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots” (Psalm 22:18). Roman soldiers stripped Jesus nearly naked, and cast lots to see who got His clothing.
• 1000 B.C. – “a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet” (Psalm 22:16). Hundreds of years before crucifixion was known to have been practiced, it was promised that Jesus would be nailed through the hands and feet by evildoers.
• 700 B.C. – “he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12). Jesus died between two guilty thieves as promised.
• 1000 B.C. – “He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken” (Psalm 34:20). Jesus died quickly enough that they did not have to break His legs on the cross.
• 1000 B.C. – “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1). Jesus quoted this verse with His dying breaths.
• 700 B.C. – “He was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people” (Isaiah 53:8b). Jesus died for the sins of others.
• 700 B.C. – “they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death…” (Isaiah 53:9). Jesus was buried in the tomb of a rich man named Joseph after He died.
• 1000 B.C. – “you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption” (Psalm 16:10). Three days after dying, Jesus did not remain in the grave decaying.
• 1000 B.C. – “You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train” (Psalm 68:18). When Jesus returned to Heaven, He took believers who died in faith with Him.
• 1000 B.C. – “The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool’” (Psalm 110:1). Today, Jesus is seated in Heaven ruling as King of Kings and will one day make all His enemies a footstool for all eternity.

Which of these prophecies is your favorite? Why?

John #37 – Pray For Non-Christians: John 17:20-26

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What do you do when people you know are far from God but don’t want to hear you talk to them about God? Rather than talking to them about God, you can talk to God about them. Lift your burden and learn to pray for family, friends, and coworkers who don’t know the Lord and see what God does to answer those prayers.

If A Christian Cannot Lose Their Salvation, What Happened to Judas?

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John 17:12 – “While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

Jesus picked 12 guys to be His students for a few years knowing that at the end of His earthly ministry, resurrection from death and return to Heaven, they would carry forth His mission, message, and ministry.

In a shocking plot twist, one of those men was a betrayer named Judas Iscariot. Before anyone knew that Judas was a double agent working for Satan, Jesus knew his heart and plot and prayed publicly to forewarn others about this man and foreshadow his demise.

Some have speculated that Judas was a believer who lost his salvation. But, Judas never was a believer. Judas did not lose his salvation. Judas did fake his salvation. There are five reasons we should see Judas as an unbeliever from beginning to end.

One, Jesus predicted that Judas’ betrayal and destruction would fulfill Old Testament Scripture. One of many Scriptures that Jesus was referring to is found in Zechariah 11:12-13. Written in 500 B.C. it prophesied, “they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’…So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter”. As prophesied, Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver and threw into an area in the Temple before hanging himself (Matthew 26:15, 27:3, 27:9).

Two, Jesus knew one of His men was a Devil. John 6:70 says, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.”

Three, Judas was stealing from Jesus throughout the entire time he was the ministry bookkeeper. Jesus said that our treasure and heart are connected, revealing our true priorities (Matthew 6:19-21). Jesus said we cannot serve both the real God and the demon god of money named Mammon (Matthew 6:24). In John 12:6, Jesus says of Judas, “he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it”.

Four, God did not make Judas sin, but knew how he would behave and predicted it in advance so that true believers would see what a fake believer is like. Jesus’ prayer in John 17:12 was clear that Judas was part of God’s grand plan to bring salvation to the world. Here’s how various translations say it:
• “the one who was destined for destruction” (CEB)
• “the son of perdition” (KJV)
• “the son of hell” (TLB)
• “the one doomed to destruction” (NIV)
Five, Judas was so in agreement with and allegiance to Satan that he actually opened himself to be completely possessed by the Devil. We read in John 13:27, “Satan entered into him”.

Are you certain that you are a true believer in Jesus Christ and not just faking faith?

Can A Christian Lose Their Salvation?

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John 17:9-12 – “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

During His final week before dying on the cross, Jesus stopped to pray His longest recorded prayer. In it, Jesus speaks of Christians retaining their relationship with God not by their own effort or merit but rather by God the Father “keeping them”. In this way, the assurance and perseverance of our salvation are in the faithfulness of God so that we continue walking with God who continues to walk with us.

God is our Father. Our Father both loves his children and is sovereign over them (as he is over the entire world), so we can be assured that our future is secure, that we have hope now and forever. Our Father loves us and is “keeping” us.

Assuring true believers that our relationship with God and eternal life are secure, Jesus says, “Not one of them has been lost”. Jesus says that none of the elect were ever lost during his ministry.

This is more cause for hope. It speaks to the enduring concern of the convicted Christian. Can we lose our salvation?

The answer is No.

We maintain our relationship with God because God keeps us. It is not maintained because we have it all together, walk faithfully, keep our chin up. We do persevere, we do work out our salvation, as Philippians 2:12 tells us, but the next verse reminds us that it is God who works in us. Salvation is a work God does in us, and our obedience is a work God does through us, as the fruit of Christ’s perfect life grows in us in the power of the Holy Spirit. God is a good Dad who promises to keep us. Hebrews 13:5 tells us that God has promised never to leave us or forsake us. Jesus told his followers that nothing can snatch them from the Father’s hand.

Over the years, I have had the blessing of traveling a lot and taking the family with me around the world. Every place we’d go, we’d end up mingling with lots of crowds in strange places where we do not speak the language. I have learned to keep an extremely watchful eye on my five kids. Throughout the day, it is an unending effort to keep them all accounted for. Grace and I end up counting 1 to 5 thousands of times a day. But the result is that they are kept together. And they are kept together not because they stay in lockstep and follow closely. They are kids. They wander, they get distracted.

For some of our kids, I had to hold their hand. Now, some of them I could not lose if I tried. I cannot lose one son. He was always there. If I could see him, it is because he was too close, actually, right behind me and up against my legs. He’d stick extremely close. But some others do not. They see something shiny: they are gone. Some are compliant, some wander wherever they want. But they are all kept together not by their effort, but mine. They are kept accounted for because Grace and I keep a close eye on them. We watch over them and keep them. God is the same way. Some of his children wander more than others, but we are all kept by the same hand and watchful eye: His. We are not lost because he keeps us found.

How has God brought you back from wandering away from Him?

Jesus Versus the World

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John 17:9-11 – “I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me…”

In the midst of His longest prayer in John 17, Jesus makes this curious statement, “I do not pray for the world”.

This statement is understandably confusing to many. This is because the word “world” is used in at least seven senses throughout the New Testament. Sometimes it means the entire creation, sometimes the inhabited world, sometimes people, sometimes the fallen system of attitudes and values that run counter to God’s design and sometimes various shades of each of those things. Context is always key.

What these particular words do not mean is that Jesus does not love everyone. When he says he is not praying for the world, it does not mean he discriminates against certain types of humanity. Jesus loves people of all races and cultures, and the great eternal worship song in Revelation 5:9 tells us that Jesus’ blood purchases men “from every tribe and language and people and nation”.

Here, “not praying for the world” means that Jesus is referring to the system of thinking, speaking, and acting that is in rebellion to God, in allegiance to Satan, and at war against the kingdom of God. This is the “world” the Apostle Paul most often warns against in his letters. In specifically exempting the world from his intercession, Jesus is implicitly praying that such sin and rebellion will be cursed and crushed, damned and destroyed, because it is utterly dark and demonic. In addition, to pray for the community of his followers, as in this instance, means praying against the forces of darkness as Paul later expounds in this way:

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand . . . And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”  (Ephesians 6:12-13, 18)

The world is like gravity that pulls us toward sin, folly, rebellion, perversion, pride, selfishness, and death. By not praying for the world, Jesus is praying against the “powers of this dark world” and for “all the saints”, echoing even his earlier instructions in the Lord’s Prayer by doing spiritual battle so that his followers will be “led not into temptation.”

What sinful gravity in the world are you battling against right now?

Pray to Prepare For Big Moments

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John 17:1-3 – “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

If you had one week to live, what would you pray for? Who would you pray for? In John 17, we read of the longest prayer Jesus ever prayed. He is in the final week of His life, headed to the cross to pay the penalty for the sin of the world. In Jesus’ prayer, as you would expect, he does pray for Himself, but he actually spends most of his prayer in selfless intercession for his disciples and for all the believers who will result from their continued ministry.

Every day matters, but some days matter more. There are windows of sacred and significant opportunity that, if we do not capture, are gone forever. Jesus knows that He is fast approaching the most important day of His life on earth and the goal of His mission, which was to glorify the Father by saving the sinners.

Life can get so busy and we can get so distracted that we miss the big moments. The key, as Jesus models, is to stop and pray so that we capture the big moments and prepare ourselves to either have God get us around it, or have God get us through it. These big moments can be a big opportunity, a big obstacle, or a big decision. Our first priority must be prayer, to connect with God and align with His will for our life. When big moments are on the horizon, it’s more important than ever to push everything else down our priority list and pray first.

Are there any big moments in your life or on your horizon that you need to be diligent in prayer for?

Should We Only Pray to God the Father or Can We Pray to Jesus and the Holy Spirit?

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John 17:1 – “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said Father…”

As I’m taking roughly 45 weeks preaching through John’s Gospel, we arrived at Jesus’ longest prayer in John 17. There, Jesus prays to God as “Father”, which is his common pattern. After each service, as Grace and I were visiting with and praying for our people, many of them had the same question, “Should we pray to God the Father or can we pray to Jesus and the Holy Spirit?”

           

That is a common question. As a general rule, most of our praying should be to God the Father. Jesus taught us saying in Matthew 6:9, “Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven”. Jesus modeled praying to God as Father repeatedly as some 165 times in the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), He refers to God as Father which is His favorite name for God.

           

Sometimes, it is fine to pray to Jesus. There is an occasion when an early church leader named Stephen prayed to Jesus as he was dying. We read in Acts 7:59 that Stephen saw Jesus in heaven and “he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’”.

           

Christian prayer is most often Trinitarian. Practically, this means we pray by the Spirit, through Jesus Christ our mediator, to God the Father. Praying by the Spirit is clearly taught in the Bible. Ephesians 6:18 says we should be, “praying at all times in the Spirit”. Jude 1:20 says we should be, “praying in the Holy Spirit”. Praying through Jesus Christ is what He meant teaching us to pray, “in my name” (John 14:13-14).

           

There are times, however, when it is sensible to pray to Jesus or the Spirit. For example, if you are reading the Bible and reminded that Jesus died in your place for your sins on the cross, it is a good thing to stop and thank Him for doing that work on your behalf. Or, if you love someone who is far from God and not paying any attention to the bad decisions that are harming their life and relationship with God, you can pray to the Spirit to convict them of their sin as that is one of His ministries (John 16:8).

           

Which member of the Trinity do you feel most familiar with? How can you get to know the others?
While walking on the earth, the Lord Jesus was constantly referring to God the Father. Jesus’ favorite title for God is Father and this is reported roughly 65 times in three gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke). In John’s gospel, Jesus refers to God as Father roughly 100 times. In the longest recorded prayer of Jesus, He begins by praying to God as Father yet again.

Our big brother Jesus is modeling some very powerful truths in His prayer.

First, we need God like a small child needs their parent. No matter how old we are, we are still the Father’s kids and always need His help.

Second, the God of the Bible is relational. The entire concept of the Trinity is that God is relational – one God in three Persons in perfect and eternal relationship.

Three, in any relationship, communication is key. When we read the Bible, we are listening to God speak to us. When we pray to God, He is listening to us.

Four, as a Father, God hears and answers prayer like any parent – yes, no, later. Just because we do not get God to give or do what we ask does not mean that He is not hearing. Rather, His answer may simply be no or later. It might not be His will, or it might not be His timing.

How is your time listening to God’s Word, and praying to God going each day?

John #36 – Pray For Christians: John 17:6-19

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The fastest way to improve your relationship with people is to begin praying for them. Praying is a way of promoting loving and serving. Praying is a way of preventing gossiping and fighting. Improve your emotional and relational health by learning how to pray for other Christians from the pattern of Jesus’ longest prayer.