Union With God
Scripture Reading — John 17:20-26
“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.”
—John 17:20-21
Jesus has insisted throughout his ministry that his words are simply his Father’s words, and that his deeds are the deeds his Father wants done. His love, his compassion, his judgments are precisely the love, the compassion, and the judgments of his Father. Jesus and his Father speak and act as one.
Now Jesus pulls us into that divine unity: “I in them and you in me!”
Jesus living in us—his mind, our mind; his will, our will; his goals, our goals.
The Father living in Jesus—his words, desires, compassion, and truth, all the same in Jesus.
The Father in Jesus, Jesus in you and me—united in love, in purpose, and in life!
What a thought! The Father, the Son, and all of us believers living and loving as one. What a challenge!
We divide and separate so quickly, and we justify our divisions so self-righteously. But if Jesus prays that we will be one, shouldn’t that be our prayer as well? And if we aren’t working on that, shouldn’t we confess our sin and pray and work to change?
United with the Father and the Son, we will be united with each other. As A. W. Tozer wrote in The Pursuit of God, “One hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other.”
Unite us, Lord, in your will, your love, and your truth so that, through us, the world may recognize you as the living, loving God. In Christ, Amen.
About the author — Harvey Stob
Rev. Harvey Stob and his wife, Audrey, served as missionaries in Argentina for eleven years. They then served churches in Cincinnati, Ohio; Ridgewood, New Jersey; and Ann Arbor, Michigan. Harvey retired from full-time pastoral work in 2009. He and Audrey have three children and seven grandchildren.
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