“I’m convinced that when Jesus prayed for unity among those who love him he was praying for a willingness to struggle together for understanding out of mutual respect for him.”

I wrote the above statement in a previous post titled “Engage Yourself in a Struggle to Understand.”

What person, place, thing or event are you trying to understand at this moment in time? Why is it important for you right now?

Have you ever felt misunderstood?
When you feel misunderstood:
Do you feel unimportant? uncared for? hated? despised?
Do you stop talking and feel exasperated?
Do you harden your heart and say it doesn’t matter if someone else doesn’t understand you or you don’t understand them?

Jesus didn’t harden his heart against people who didn’t understand him. He kept trying to explain God’s love through word and deed. Part of sharing God’s love was correcting people for their erroneous ways of thinking and behaving. Most people do not enjoy being disciplined or corrected. Many people fear being corrected and attempt to place themselves in some kind of control. Do you ever find yourself doing that in your personal relationships? How about in your relationship with God? If you stepped back and observed your relationship with Jesus could it be that you might be guilty of ‘bullying’ Jesus.

A guilty world does . . . he was bullied all the way to the cross . . . pathetic isn’t it? But miraculous how he responded . . .

‘Father, forgive them . . for they know not what they do.’

There are times that Jesus retreated to a quiet place in order to spend spiritual time with God . . . how good are we at doing this?

Have you ever found yourself in a quiet place you would rather not be in? And in this quiet place do you ever find yourself feeling pulled or pushed into different directions? Do you ever feel tempted to give up on your faith in God, your belief in Jesus and the Holy Spirit?

“In Matthew 4:1-11 we read Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit, where he was on a forty-day fast. He experienced hunger and then the temptations from Satan began. First Satan attempted to induce doubt . . . ” (Praying Our Way Through Stress:Drawing Wisdom from the Lord’s Life and Prayer. page 53) Do you ever doubt? Jesus cast aside doubt by quoting Scripture. Find the Scripture that will help you and memorize it – get it written onto your heart and into your mind so you can think and speak it when doubt tempts you.

“The work that Jesus commissioned his disciples to do was the same work he did: . . .Essentially, that meant they were to . . . help people to live together in love and peace.” (Praying Our Way Through Stress: Drawing Wisdom from the Lord’s Life and Prayer. page 58.)

The sad truth about our lives is that we keep falling out of love and peace into hatred and fighting and we do not always know what we are doing. Period. The End. We think we always know . . . so did the people who crucified Jesus . . . but they didn’t really realize who he was and what they had done until after he asked God to forgive them and died. Forgiving what seems to be unforgiveable acts and the people who commit them can cause their hearts and minds to become open to God. That is difficult to understand . . . because not everyone you forgive turns to God when forgiveness is pronounced. And it’s difficult for some people to believe that God will forgive them for their sinful deeds and thoughts because nobody has ever told them they could be or are forgiven. Forgiveness has the power to bring unity into the world and into the church. Forgiveness is the first and most important message that can be taught in the church and to the world. Not an easy lesson – but I think it’s the lesson that brings us closer to the unity that Jesus desires for all of us.

Jesus’ prayer for unity in John 17 is one of my favorite if not my favorite book in Scripture. No matter where we are physically, if we are united to God in Christ with the presence of the Holy Spirit in us, then we will keep trying to understand God. Understanding God and our relationship with him helps us to understand our relationship with other people. You see, God desires to have the same loving relationship with everyone, do we? Sometimes we find our way back into healthy relationships with other people when we begin working on having a better relationship with God first. It is he, who draws us to him, and then sends us out to reconcile with other people.

Let us pray . . .

Lord, Thank you for the gift of Forgiveness and the unity and peace found therein. Please give us your Holy Spirit to be with us in our circumstances where our faith is challenged, where we are tempted to do things our own way instead of yours or to worship anyone or anything instead of you. Help us to help you remove a spirit of doubt that covers this world and proclaim the message that every person has the right to become a child of yours through a loving relationship with Jesus Christ, your son and our savior. AMEN