Light
for the path EMMA BECKETT | SUNZ Youth Camp Leader
In most opportunities that I’ve had to be still in life, my heart and mind don’t comply. My body may reflect stillness, but I’m normally conjuring up some futuristic plan, processing a conversation I’ve just engaged in, or thinking of some creative goals and questions. So, when it comes to prayer, silence, solitude, and reflection, you can bet I’m not too great at it.
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Prayer is a vital part of our lives. It is the foundation that binds together all that we do. It centres us, fixes our eyes on the kingdom, engages us in conversation with God, and allows us to have faith that fruit will come to be in due time. It’s not often in the Bible that we actually get to hear Jesus’ prayers. We regularly read that he goes away to be alone and pray, but we don’t usually get a description of his times of prayer. In the book of John, however, we get to experience an incredible prayer from Jesus. He prays to be glorified, he prays for his disciples, and then he prays for all of his believers — for you and me. ‘I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may
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be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one — I in them and you in me — so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.’ – John 17: 20-23 Prayer is not always easy. But reading this passage from John reassures me that prayer is the posture we need to take more often. Jesus has already interceded and prayed for us— that we would be brought to complete unity in order that others may understand the love the Father has for us. It is prayer and this relationship with God that bring wholeness to the different parts in our lives and purpose to our direction—and remind us that God is on the throne. Let’s be more intentional about prayer and ensure that it is the foundation of all that we do.
