John 17:21

“that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” John 17:21

Jesus continues His prayer for His disciples. What was His prayer request for them? His prayer request was for unity, that His disciples may be one. This is still Jesus’ heart for His people today. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, and thus He still longs for His body to be united as one.

Why did Jesus pray for the unity of His disciples, when, in our eyes, there were probably many “more important” things for which He could have prayed for them? I believe He prayed for the disciples’ unity because He knew how much of a struggle this was for them, and not only that, but He also knew how much of a struggle this would be for every single person who would come to believe in Him.

It is really hard to live in unity with each other. Everyone has their own desires, their own plans, and their own struggles, thus in order to be in unity we must die to self so that we might life to Jesus. Jesus is the one Thing we all have in common, and thus to be united as brothers and sisters in Christ we must live for Him and not ourselves.

Why is unity so hard? Why is it such a struggle? Why isn’t easy to lay down my rights for my brothers and sisters?  I believe it is because the enemy is working so hard to destroy the unity of the church. Notice the last part of John 17:21 – “so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.”  When believers are unified, it is a testimony of Jesus to a lost and dying world. Satan does not like this. He is doing everything he possibly can in order to prevent people to come to the saving grace of Jesus. It makes sense, then, that he works so hard to cause us to not be unified.

What a comfort to me to know that Jesus prayed for the unity of His followers. I want to daily die to myself for the sake of unity, for the sake of living a life pleasing to Jesus. How I long to live in unity with my brothers and sisters so that it would be a testimony of Jesus to the world around us!

Application: Today I will pray that there will be unity within our teams.