“Why does God not answer my prayers?” we ask. Read Jesus’ prayer for us in John 17, and turn the question around and ask yourself, “Why have we not answered Jesus’ prayer for us?” Jesus made it clear that He was praying for us. He prays for our sanctification. He prays for our oneness with each other, with Him and the Father. He prays that we would be filled with His love. His Spirit is sent to enable us to begin to answer this prayer.
“But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
‘Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even 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 sent Me.
“O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
John 17:13-21, 25-26 (NASB)
