This is Part III of a prayer using the very words Jesus prayed with his disciples in John 17.
My encouragement for this prayer is to keep a specific person in mind as you pray these words!
Father in heaven, though your Son ascended to you and is no longer in the world, we are still in the world. So Holy Father, protect us by the power of your name, the name you gave your Son Jesus. Make our church one just as you are one! Protect us, Lord, just as Christ protected his followers and kept them safe by that name you gave him. None was lost, except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
Lord, I pray these words Jesus prayed while he was still in the world, so that we may have the full measure of his joy within us.
Help us to remember that just as the world hated the first disciples, that we are also are not of the world any more than Christ was of the world. Do not take us out of the world, but protect us from the evil one. We are not of the world, even as Jesus is not of this world!
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
