Unity, Glory, and Love: Are They on Your List?

Some of my top prayer requests over the past 5 years have been (in no particular order):

- To get a job/better job/more satisfying job
- To recover from illness, pain, depression
- To have relationship healing
- To be a good father/husband
- To have a wife/family of my own
- To avoid conflict
- That someone in my circle of friends would love Jesus more
- That my brother would be safe in the middle of war

The other night at STATUS, Josh Loveless, the pastor of our community brought up a great point. He reminded us that Jesus had some prayers requests, too. Prayers that are rarely even mentioned by us. Prayers that almost never even make it into the top 100 on our list of important matters.

Here are Jesus' prayers for us:

"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."
- JESUS (as quoted by John 17:20-26)

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Hmmm... Unity in the Church, visions of the glory of Christ, and the fullness of God's love dwelling in us...  I think that if Jesus wanted these things for us, then they'd better become a part of our prayers, too.

Now, this isn't to say that it's wrong to pray for jobs, relationships, injuries, and other matters that are pressing on our hearts. But it's sort of sad that the things Jesus prayed for rarely make it into our own desires.

I don't know that we can say that we're seeking after His heart, when the things that are important to Him aren't becoming increasingly important to us, too.