A Prayer For Unity In Our Body
Feb 17 2023 - Eric Buresh
The Holy Spirit has been fixing my heart and mind recently on the unity of our body of believers we call Grace Church. We’re in a spiritual battle. It’s increasing every day. How can we make the joints and sinews of our body stronger so we can withstand? Unity.
Unity in our faith means so much more than the trivial word it has become in our culture. It is more than agreement, more than acceptance, more than being part of the same team, more than sharing the same goals. Unity for us means oneness. Two, three, ten, three thousand becoming one. A singularity. Jesus. He must increase, and we must individually decrease. Unity in our faith is a loss of ourselves, subsumed into the One body. God has sovereignly brought each of us together at this one place and this one time to form us into a blessed Oneness in Christ.
David penned a beautiful picture of the unity of believers in Psalm 133:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!
It is like the precious oil upon the head,
Running down on the beard,
The beard of Aaron,
Running down on the edge of his garments.
It is like the dew of Hermon,
Descending upon the mountains of Zion;
For there the Lord commanded the blessing—
Life forevermore.
Jesus prayed for this same Oneness in the High Priestly Prayer of John 17:
Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one. (vs. 11, 20-23)
That we may be perfect in one! This is what unity means for us! What more could we ask . . . What more could we want . . .
Father, I ask you to fill us, your children at Grace Church, with the Holy Spirit of Christ to such a degree that we reflect oneness with Jesus and oneness with each other more than ever before. I know, Father, that we will not reach perfection in unity this side of Jesus’s return, but we desire your Spirit to draw us tighter and tighter with each other in Christ. We want to surrender our self-centeredness by the power that you work in us. We desire to decrease as individuals so that the beauty and power of the body of Jesus increases so that we are strengthened and so that Jesus looks more beautiful in hearts and minds of those who witness our fellowship, both believers and those who are seeking the Truth. We ask for this work of your Spirit in the powerful and redeeming name of Jesus, and we trust Your faithfulness to provide it. Amen.