It's all about Jesus

John 17:20 "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word."

In the 17th chapter of the gospel of John we come across Jesus' prayer to the Father. He prays for those that have believed that Jesus was sent by the Father (Vs.8), because He would no longer be in the world (Vs.11). He prays for their joy (Vs.13) and for them to be sanctified by the Father's truth (Vs. 17). In this verse Jesus extends the prayer not only to those who were believers at the time, but also to those who will believe in Him in the future.
What strikes me in this verse is the fact that Jesus assumes two things: that the disciples will preach His gospel to non-believers and that the non-believers will believe in Jesus based on their testimonies. Jesus does not pray to the Father that the unbelievers will come to a belief in Christ, He prays for those that will believe. To Jesus it is already a matter of fact that there will be new believers based on the testimonies of His current disciples. Jesus knows all things. He is God. He can see the end from the beginning. He is neither surprised by the lack of faith or the great accomplishments of His disciples. There is nothing we can do as disciples that He does not already know. When Jesus went to the cross He already knew who I was with all my faults, sins, and abilities. When He laid down His life He died for all my sins and covered them completely. When I fail today in my sinfulness, He says, "Yes I know; I covered this on the cross too. Now confess and repent and sin no more. Go on fighting the good fight." Too many times we tell the Lord that we will never do "that" again, only to find ourselves once again fallen pray to the same old sinful behavior. And we are such self-focused creatures that even in our sins we still focus on what we did. The result is that we beat ourselves up and see only our weaknesses and failures. God wants us to take our eyes off of ourselves, when we fail and when we succeed. When we fail, so that we do not fall into despair, and when we succeed so that we do not give into pride. Our focus needs on be on Jesus. When we fail we need to look on Him who died on the cross for us and thank Him that He covered this sin as well. When we succeed, we need to thank Him for empowering us through the Holy Spirit and for giving us all the faith to believe. It is all about Him! We must decrease so that He must increase. We die daily to our selves and follow Him. We must give Him every day afresh and let Him work in us. What counts is not what we can or cannot do but what He has already done. He gave us clear instructions to obey His commandments and go into all the world, be witnesses of His gospel, and make disciples. Any other path in life will not lead to His glory in heaven.

Application
I want to stay connected to God throughout the day, so that I do not let my eyes drift away from God and onto myself. Therefore today I will keep an attitude of prayer in my mind and seek any opportunity to pray, for myself and others.