John 17:1-11a
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him. Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
"I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you."
Dawg's thought:
Today's prayer intention is for healing for those in your life who are in need of it, and in a special way that they may come to know Christ through His mercy.
Where do we place our hope?
Jesus came into the world and showed us The Way. Through His death, He showed us that we do not need to fear death. Through His ascension, He shows us where our hope should be: heaven.
We can see the effects of a world who bought into the lie John Lennon fell for: "imagine there's no heaven." Without the hope of heaven, why should we give to those who are in need as an act of thanksgiving? Without the hope of heaven, why should we forgive our neighbors? Without the hope of heaven, prayer can easily be turned into a "self-serving" act.
Jesus Christ opened the heavens for us, and He has shown us the way. Let us be mindful of the hope of heaven in our everyday lives so that we may preach a truth that the world needs to hear. Let us be mindful of heaven, which is a place greater than anything John Lennon could have imagined. Take care and God Bless.
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