A Gift from God

The Lord is so lovely. He has answered many of the prayers I've posted over time. I am not good about keeping them updated. One that so many ask about is my friend with the brain tumor. He brought her through surgery with flying colors and no cancer and she is doing very well. He heard our prayers and had compassion on all of us. Thank you for praying!

I've been praying more deliberately for people lately and there are so many times I don't know how to pray. I think of the Lord's prayer as an example but still struggle when I'm not as aware of His presence and words. But suddenly tonight as I was struggling, I found the answer! In the most precious words, words that were in the gospel of John that I have read many times, were these hidden words that I previously didn't notice. Yesterday I began praying Jeremiah 33:3, "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." I began praying this for someone else, but He knew I had these things I don't know. Life changing things that I needed to hear.

So, He answered my call, because that's what He does. He promises to do it, time and again, yet oftentimes we fail to believe He really will. But He is faithful, faithful, faithful. Patient and faithful. In John 17 we are invited into the private conversation between the perfect son and the perfect father. We don't deserve to be in their presence, but He invites anyway. That perfect son (as well as the Holy Spirit) is the only one who truly knows the full majesty of our Lord, and He loves us enough to spend time pleading for us...

In John 17:20;23-26 Jesus said, "I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you... Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 
Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

Jesus isn't being arrogant, He is literally perfect and the One who knows all knows that the absolute best thing for us, the most important prayer that could be said, is that we would have Jesus within us. So, this is how we pray. It is more important than the little issues we have going on, because if we become more like Him, we will know how to deal with them. We will have the faith to listen to His word, and the authority to command and expect the impossible. He also refers to us as "those you have given me", because we are precious gifts for Him. I learned today also (from 1 Peter 2:24) that we should "live for righteousness" and it is clear that a gift given to the most amazing man who ever lived (who is, of course, fully God as well) should be living for righteousness. I think it's time to up the ante with our standards and live today for righteousness, to be "worthy" of being called not just a child of God, but a gift of God.