"YOU SENT ME AND LOVED THEM!"

John 17:23                     (ESV)
"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."



The seventeenth chapter of John is known as "The High Priestly Prayer" by most.  The prayer was prayed by JESUS to HIS FATHER right before HE was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane.  To me, it is one of the most intimate chapters in the entire Holy Bible as JESUS pours out HIS Heart and Soul to GOD the CREATOR before HE pays the ultimate price for my salvation.   GOD knew what was coming during the next few days, and since GOD knew, JESUS knew because HE was/is GOD in the flesh!  Willingly going to Calvary's tree is something I cannot wrap my mind around, nor can I adequately describe why HE did this?  To define HIS actions simply by declaring HE LOVED me doesn't seem to suffice, but words cannot describe GOD's LOVE!

When JESUS prayed "SO THAT THE WORLD MAY KNOW THAT YOU "SENT ME AND LOVED THEM" EVEN AS YOU LOVED ME", HE was proclaiming that the CREATOR of the universe love me as much as HE loved HIS only begotten SON!  GOD so loved the whole world that HE sent JESUS to pay a ransom for our souls that we could NEVER pay!  And GOD loved me as much as HE loves JESUS, according to the prayer JESUS prayed right before HE paid for my soul!

Depression is one of the enemies most effective tools nowadays.  The enemy gets us to thinking that we are worthless and failures, when all the time GOD may be using our situation to draw all glory to HIMSELF!  It may come as a shocking revelation to some, but we were CREATED to give glory to GOD, not to ourselves (Psalms 115:1)!  If a person keeps his/her focus on the CREATOR rather than their PERCEIVED problems, depression will die a painful death!  Immediately following the brain hemorrhage in 2007, it was standard procedure to prescribe medication for me for depression.  Soon afterwards I went on an all natural antidepressant.  The enemy will use any tool at his disposal to drag a Child of GOD into a rut.  To say I am blessed that GOD wouldn't let me wallow in the rut satan was trying to leave me in could be the understatement of all time!

GOD not only let me know "THAT YOU SENT JESUS AND LOVED THEM EVEN AS YOU LOVED HIM", GOD informed everyone in "THE WORLD" of the same!  The enemy would like for us all to SEE nothing but how vile and corrupt "this world" is becoming.  GOD wants us all to SEE that "YOU SENT ME AND LOVED THEM"!!!  GOD doesn't just LOVE a chosen few, JESUS was sent to earth "SO THAT THE WORLD MAY KNOW THAT "YOU SENT ME AND LOVED THEM" EVEN AS YOU LOVED ME."  The question now is, do you LOVE HIM???