Prayer - Jesus Prayed for Us

Interceding for All Believers

“I pray not on behalf of these only, but also for those who believe in Me through their message, that they all may be one. Just as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You, so also may they be one in Us, so the world may believe that You sent Me.The glory that You have given to Me I have given to them, that they may be one just as We are one—I in them and You in Me—that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them as You loved Me."
-Jesus of Nazareth, 1st century
John 17:20-23 in the Tree of Life Version

It is humbling to know that Jesus, Our Lord and Savior prayed for all of us in the moments leading up to His arrest and His mock trial, and His time of agony, temptation and our redemption.

Jesus knew that He needed to intercede on our behalf because we too like Him and His followers, will undergo our own trying times. And He already sent word to Our Father about us.

New Year, Same & New Trials

The new year is nothing more than all of us growing an earth year older -- meaning earth completing one whole trip around the sun -- the earth taking all of us for a spin around God's creation, through the different seasons down here on earth and the different views of the constellations in the heavens above.

We are still here on planet earth, with the same trials left unresolved as the year before, plus new ones that will present itself in this new year.

What can be new is our mindset or our perspective and how we are to face each new day.

Jesus prayed for us, every single one of us. The Word has been sent out. The universe has been created the very same way -- with the Word. God said, Let there be light and there was light.

Let there be man, in our image and likeness; and there was -- us.

Jesus prayed for us -- those who will believe in Him through the message preached by those that He personally selected and taught.

And we did believe. It wasn't easy, it wasn't automatic, it wasn't smooth sailing, it wasn't magic. We probably had more trials after we believed in Jesus than before we did. And that is okay. It was actually to be expected.

Jesus said, in this world we will have trouble but He added "take heart" -- meaning, don't be afraid, be courageous, stand firm, move forward.

Jesus said and He did, "He has overcome the world".

In the Message Paraphrase Version:

In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world.

We are more than conquerors. And how do we show it? We go to our secret place, in our quiet time and we pray to Our Father who is in heaven through our Savior and in His Name, Jesus of Nazareth.

This year is the year we start each new day with Our Creator, continually walking in His Spirit throughout the day and as we retire to rest at the end of each day, we would tell Him about our day, thank Him and pray for the next day to be better than the previous one. In the Name of Jesus.

When more and more believers all over the world are doing this, the world will finally know that we are One -- one heart, one mind, one spirit, one faith.

Love and unity defines who we are in Christ -- not our different denominations, church names and church leaders.

If we are a Christian and we are not a channel of Christ's love and unity, we missed something, somewhere. And it"s easy enough to know what it is. It is the first step -- knowing Christ, not just knowing about Him. If you are ready to do this, you and your world will be transformed. There will be heaven on earth, even though it is basically godless. That was the reason Jesus came down from heaven, to bring the Kingdom of God here.

We do not have to worry about the big stuff much less sweat over the small ones. Life suddenly becomes beautiful, simple, light, like it should be.