Jesus Prays for Himself
John 17:1 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. NKJV
There are those who believe we have no choice yet Jesus found it necessary to pray. As a matter of fact, prayer was a normal aspect of His life. His relationship with Our Heavenly Father was one of daily communication and as noted in the garden of Gethsemane, He mentioned a time frame of an hour to the disciples. You can discount all the Scriptures where we are given choices but nonetheless they are still there.
Is Our Heavenly Father sovereign? Of course HE is. Both free will and sovereignty can co-reside together but the ego would have you believe it must be one or the other. If you have no choice, then you are not accountable or responsible for your actions. If that were the case, then the Law would have been of none effect. You might as well consider HIS great grace and mercy of no value as well. You would have to cut out a substantial portion of Scripture from your Bible. “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve” would be an unnecessary demand by the Creator. What’s the point if you really don’t have a choice. The reality is that Love demands a choice. The more you understand Love, the greater appreciation you have for choice. If your child had no choice but to say “I love you”, what would be the point? We are not robots. Jesus found the need and had the desire to pray for Himself. If He had no choice, He would have not even needed to spend 3 1/2 years in ministry.
A calling requires you to mature. It also requires you to make appropriate decisions during your times of trials and testing. You ultimately decide what path you are going to take. You decide whether your old man rules you or the new man takes command. You are responsible. “Takers” think that everyone else is responsible for their wellbeing and that society owes them something. They are fruitless and will be pruned away. Their unbelief in the Word of GOD prevents them from being converted into vessels of honor.
Jesus’ ministry was to glorify Our Heavenly Father on earth. Isn’t our ministry tied to the same mission? Who do we glorify in our daily walk? Are we exalting ourselves or Our Heavenly Father and Our Lord Jesus Christ? Jesus completed His mission in about 3 1/2 years. He accepted the calling given to Him “before the world was”. He knew the need to die to the flesh. He knew there would be testing of His maturity as occurred in the wilderness. He made decisions each and every day to continue the mission.
Each of us has been given a mission. The vessels of honor are called to give. The vessels of dishonor will suck the life and resources out of anyone who gives in to their demands. Jesus ministered to the people as directed by Our Heavenly Father. Not everyone was healed. Not everyone received the message of salvation. We will encounter those who reject the Good News but that should not dissuade us from our mission to spread the Gospel to all.
Our Heavenly Father will glorify us at the appropriate time. In the meantime, we should not be sitting around sowing “nothing”. We are called to Love and it is active, not passive. We are called to sow good seeds. We are called to spend time with Our Heavenly Father because we Love HIM and want to be with HIM. Many are called but few are chosen. Those chosen were not too busy with their own agendas to respond to the Voice of Our Heavenly Father. Let us run the race and finish it. Let us be good and faithful sons who accomplished our mission just as Jesus did. Let us glorify Our Heavenly Father!