(Devotions this week based on Sunday’s Message: Pray Like Jesus! Pray for Unified Direction! – CLICK HERE)
Oneness is hard to achieve and hard to maintain.
We can be in the same room and not be one.
We can be in a relationship and not be one.
We can work for the same company and not be one.
Jesus prayed for all those who would believe in him through the message of his disciples to be one. I don’t know if I really grasp fully what he is praying for as it is, in my opinion, so hard to experience in life.
The first example that comes to mind is Adam and Eve in the garden. The lack of sin in their lives allowed them to live in full harmony with God and with each other. God would walk in the garden with them and interact with them. There was no fear of each other or threat of harm. While we know very little of this time, however the perception of “it was good” was a perfect harmony between God and Adam and Eve and Adam and Eve and God.
Sin created division.
Perhaps we can sense the reality of a lack of oneness more than describe what oneness is. When Adam and Eve chose to eat of the fruit of which God had told them not to, there was an immediate break in oneness. Adam and Eve hid from God. Fear was a new emotion that kept them from engaging in a daily walk together. Adam blamed God for Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. Blaming was a new activity in that marriage and in the relationship with God. Pain and heartache were new consequences. A quick read of Genesis 4-6 and one realizes the oneness of the Garden deteriorated rapidly to a self-centered oneness that engaged in evil and wickedness. The issue was the heart of mankind had drifted from a love of God to a love of self.
God seeks oneness.
A key starting point to understanding ‘oneness’ is God himself.
Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
Even though throughout Scriptures, God reveals himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, there is no division between each person of the godhead. They are unified in being – each fully God. They are unified in proclamation – they all say the same thing. They are unified in purpose – bringing salvation to all mankind.
Jesus gives examples:
John 5:19 Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
John 8:27 They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. 28 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.
The oneness God experiences and expresses as God is what Jesus is desiring all believers to experience.
Let’s just say, we have work to do!
Apply: How do you see the oneness of the Trinity play out in the oneness shared by believers?
PRAYER: Father, thank you for being one with the Son and the Spirit. Give us insights into the oneness you exhibit as God so that we might experience a small glimpse of that with fellow believers. AMEN.