Protection Of The Father's Love

 

Today I am going to talk about the Father’s love. Without Christ coming to us, we could never have known the Father’s Love. It is true that it would be hard to identify with the idea of the Father’s love, if our relationship with our earthly fathers wasn’t that great. First, Jesus made sure to communicate to us the name of our Heavenly Father and this is very important because, how can we be in a relationship with someone we don’t know the name? In the Old testament, God introduced himself to Isaac: “I am the God of Abraham your father.” (Genesis 26:24) Also, God introduced himself to Moses to send him in Mission to Pharaoh and told him: “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'” (Exodus 3:14) Jesus introduced us to His Father saying many times: “The Father and I are one.” We have so much to learn from Jesus’ prayer in John 17, but I will concentrate more on the Father’s love and its implications for us believers. There is a saying in Latin Lex Orandi Lex Credendi meaning, “how we pray shapes how we believe” So we are going to analyze how Jesus prayed, so we can understand what he believed and how that shapes our faith as well.

Jesus had a strong prayer life! Because he was already full of the Father’s Love, he cared for his disciples and us… so He prayed for them and presented them back to his Father, just like we dedicate our new born to God. Jesus reported that His disciples had received the Father’s name, they had believed, they had understood that Jesus was sent by the Father and that they knew his words were also His Father’s. They were set apart from the world. They now belonged to God but, they are still to live in the world. 

 

Here is how I think of the Father’s love: We were chosen by God to represent his name, in a community of faith with all our issues, our struggles and challenges, but Jesus still counts us to be His. This is why He prays that they may be one as He and the Father are one. I don’t know how to picture the anatomy of this love between God the Father and the Son, but it is a pretty profound and strong love. They are in sync in everything they do and say, they are not at odd with each other: they are one! Jesus is praying that we, the church may have the same bond with each other and with God as the bond that exists between the Father and the Son. Can you see the stretch? To get to that kind of unity, the key is to be kept in the name that the Father gave to the Son. The enemy knows how powerful we can be as a community of faith, hope and love. James asked: “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?” Yeah.

Even so, what’s surprising is that, the Father’s love that flows through the veins of His Son Jesus Christ, does not stop him from consecrating his disciples with their struggles and all… that small community of faith, called to be different from the world yet in the world. The church, our community of faith is a force not to reckon with when it comes to faith. Do I believe that? Yes, with all my heart because you have been bathed in the Father’s love and truth. You are a huge disturbance to the prince of this world. What can I say? The truth will always be offensive to the world!

You see the world has never been interested in the truth. That’s why Pontius Pilate asked Jesus what is truth? His version was, “what makes the best deal”, that’s how the world works, but that’s not how God’s Kingdom works. Our community reveals the truth about the Father’s love: how we genuinely love each other; and share our pain and our joys... I got your back man! Jesus prayed that they may be kept from sin, that they may do their mission on earth and be brought safely to heaven. Jesus prayed for Peter before the denials… He knew about his upcoming battles and our battles; he knows our hearts and how weak our faith can be, that’s why he taught us to pray:

“Deliver us from the evil one” Protect us Lord, from the wolves; from all forms of spiritual attacks and help us dwell in the Father’s love and kept in His Son’s name every day.

Amen.