Heavenly Father, I praise You for creating us to be social because You are social. I praise You that we have seasons, holidays, and remembrances so that we can give You glory and honor. I praise You for today and for the salvation that started some time around this time of year. Help us to take command of our day and shake the evil from it.
Holy Spirit, help us to take time and enjoy our families, community, and our church family. Let us not let stress take the joy out of this season for us. Help us to slow down and appreciate the quietness of this time of year and truly be thankful for the gift of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us to be as expectant of his return as they were when He came into this world. Open our eyes to the wonder of the heavens as You tore open the skies that night with angels proclaiming the good news to the shepherds.
Now I’m returning to you. I’m saying these things in the world’s hearing so my people can experience My joy completed in them. I gave them Your word; the godless world hated them because of it, because they didn’t join the world’s ways. Just as I didn’t join the world’s ways. I’m not asking that you take them out of the world, but that you guard them from the Evil One. They are no more defined by the world than I am defined by the world. Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth; Your word is consecrating truth. In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world. I’m consecrating myself for their sakes, so they’ll be truth-consecrated in their mission. I’m praying not only for them but also for those who will believe in me because of them and their witness about me. The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, so they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me. The same glory you gave me, I gave them, so they’ll be as unified and together as we are—I in them and you in me. Then they’ll be mature in this oneness and give the godless world evidence that you’ve sent me and loved them in the same way you’ve loved me. Father, I want those you gave me to be with me, right where I am, so they can see my glory, the splendor you gave me, having loved me long before there ever was a world. Righteous Father, the world has never known you. But I have known you, and these disciples know that you sent me on this mission. I have made your very being known to them—who you are and what you do—and continue to make it known, so that your love for me might be in them exactly as I am in them. (Amen) John 17:13-26, the Message