Living as answered prayer

“In every way Jesus, let my life become an answer to Your prayers for the world” (Paul Thigpen, episode 28, video 2.51 minute mark)

 Something happens at just the right moment…clarity given, help arrives, and we say “you’re an answer to prayer!” or “you’re a God-send!”. But listening to Paul Thigpen’s Lenten reflections (day 28 on John’s gospel chapter 17), the question immediately arose in my mind: Is my life lived so as to be an answer to Jesus’ prayer? This entire chapter  of John’s gospel has always been one of my favorites. Yet looking again at this scripture but this time with that question in mind, I realize it provides an examination of conscience rooted in Jesus’ love for me personally and my response to that love: 

…Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to all you gave him. (v. 1-2): ‘all you gave him’…I am God’s gift to Jesus and in return He wants to give me eternal life with God. 

Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ (v. 3): I believe God my Father is the only true God who sent Jesus so that I may personally have eternal life (John 3:16). Jesus now says that this is eternal life; that is, really knowing God. Knowing Him rather than just the concept of Him. Have I sought to get to know Him today? 

I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word (v. 6). How well have I kept His Word today? How, and how often, have I tried to justify myself when I haven’t? 

…everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. (v. 10): How have I treated God’s gifts–people, creatures, and man-made things? Have I been thankful? Did I appropriately dignify others? Take proper care of creation? Was I wasteful or irresponsible in my use of things? 

When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them… (v. 12): What unnecessary risks (physically, morally, and spiritually) have I taken? What might I have avoided, and why didn’t I? Did I lead others into unnecessary risks too? 

Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth. (v. 17-19): Do I seek His truth alone, or do I grasp after that which excites or intrigues me? Do I live as one consecrated in the truth? 

I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word… (v. 20): Have I shared the Word of God with anyone today? Perhaps a simple “God bless you” to the store cashier, an act of kindness, or demonstration of virtue? Do I stand out in this world or blend in? 

… so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one…(v. 21-23) Do I seek to create real unity (based in truth and love) or do I cause division based in self-righteousness? Do I accept people as God’s loved creation while gently not supporting their harmful choices, or do I attempt to ease their pain with the false promises of the world? Do my thoughts, words, or actions dull the light of God’s glory in my baptized soul? 

…that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. (v. 23): Is my love of God, and belief in His love for me, evident for the world to see? 

Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me… that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them. (v. 24, 26) 

Ultimately, simply living this truth each day is the gift of the Christian life we’ve been given, the promise of the Resurrection.

 Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam 😊

(Image by Anton Raphael Mengs from WikiArt public domain)