Day 4: The greatness and the power
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your name, the name You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one (John 17:11).
Our God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is Yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; You are exalted as head over all (1 Chronicles 29:11).
It was with this knowledge of Your all-surpassing power, authority, might, and majesty, that the Lord Jesus prayed as He hung on a Roman cross, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46). And exactly as He knew, trusted, and expected, ...God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him (Acts 2:24).
Before going to the cross, the Lord Jesus, with the same knowledge and assurance of Your all-surpassing power, authority, might, and majesty, made specific prayers and petitions for those who believe in Him: I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those You have given Me, for they are Yours (John 17:9).
Through the course of human history, this prayer has shielded and sheltered Your people in ways that we cannot imagine. And today, in this turbulent, confusing, violent, topsy-turvy world, we still have the assurance that we are protected by the power of Your name, the name You gave [to the Lord Jesus]... (John 17:11).
The apostle Paul, in writing to the Ephesian church, describes the amazing magnitude of the power that seals and secures the children of God: In [Jesus] we were also chosen as God’s own... The hope... the riches... and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe.... are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead... (Ephesians 1:11, 19-20).
O Lord, enlighten the eyes of our heart to grasp this truth—that the mighty power that raised Jesus from the grave—the mighty power our Lord invoked from the cross, is the same mighty power to which He entrusted us when He prayed, Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your name, the name You gave Me... (John 17:11).
Help us to live in this truth, to trust in this truth, to thrive in this truth—even as the seams of life unravel all around us—even as the foundations are shaken (Psalm 82:5) and are being destroyed (Psalm 11:3). Remind us that The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord is on His heavenly throne (Psalm 11:4).
Give us rest in the knowledge that we are protected by the power of the name of the One who says, "When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm" (Psalm 75:3).
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