A Prayer Shaped by the Prayer of Jesus

Father, your Son prayed for us before we were born, and we take courage from that. He asked that we would be one, as you and he are one, and we confess that we have not been. We have divided over small things and nursed old grievances and treated other believers as rivals. Forgive us, and answer his prayer in us. Make us one in a way the world can see.

He asked that we would be in you and in him. Draw us in. Do not let us live at the edges of our faith, but bring us into the fellowship you share with the Son, and keep us there.

He asked that we would see his glory. Open our eyes to it, in your word, in your people, and in the ordinary mercies of a Thursday in summer.

He asked that the love you have for him would be in us, and that he himself would be in us. That is the prayer we most want answered. Fill us with the love that has passed between you and your Son from before the world began, and let it overflow to the people around us. You do not refuse what your Son asks. We ask it with him. Amen.