Praying Through God's Word: John's Gospel

John 1:1-34

We thank You, Lord, for Your Son, Jesus - "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). What a wonderful thing this - it's the great exchange: Jesus has taken our sin, and we receive His salvation.

John 1:35-2:25

Help us, Lord, to look beyond what we are right now. Help us to catch a glimpse of what You want us to become. How are we to become what You want us to be? Your divine power is far more important than our human effort. We don't change ourselves. We are changed by You - changed by Your love, changed by Your power.

John 3:1-36

Where does our salvation come from? Does it come from ourselves? Does it begin with "I"? No! It comes from You. It begins with You - "God so loved the world ... " (John 3:16).

John 4:1-42

We thank You, Lord, for Your great love. You bring us out of our bondage to sin. You bring us into the joy of Your salvation. Your love reaches down to us. Your love brings us to Jesus. He's Your Son. He's our Saviour. Help us to put our trust in Him - to be set free from the guilt of our sinful past, to face the future with the strength that comes from Your joy (Nehemiah 8:10).

John 4:43-5:29

Lord, You love us with the best love of all. There is no love like Your love for us. Where would we be without Your love? Our lives would be a mess - a complete mess. You pick up the pieces. You put us together again. You send Your Holy Spirit to live in our hearts. He is Your guarantee to us that You are leading us on to eternal glory - with You.

John 5:30-6:21

We thank You, Lord, for Jesus - "the Bread of God ... which comes down from heaven" (John 6:33). We recall the words that He spoke to Satan in the wilderness: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). It's Jesus that we need. It's Jesus who satisfies our deepest longings. At the heart of our lives, there is emptiness - when Jesus isn't there. When He is there - in our hearts, everything changes. His love changes everything - and we say, "All that thrills my soul is Jesus. He is more than life to me."

John 6:22-59

Help us, Lord, never to be satisfied with anything less than Jesus. He's the very best, Your greatest gift, Your most wonderful blessing. What could be better than having Jesus as our Saviour? - Nothing! There's no-one like Jesus - Hallelujah!

John 6:60-7:36

We thank You, Lord, for Your Word of life. When we are tempted to draw back from following Jesus, He speaks to us "the words of eternal life" (John 6:68). This is what keeps us walking with You. It's not the strength of our faith. It's the power of Your grace. Our faith is weak. Your grace is strong. Help us, in our weakness, to hear Your Word of strength: "My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

John 7:37-8:20

We thank You, Lord, for Jesus, our holy Saviour, our loving Saviour. Jesus is perfectly holy, yet He keeps on loving us with a perfect love - "Neither do I condemn you" (John 8:11). Jesus' love for us is very wonderful, but He doesn't say to us, 'Go and do what you like.' He says, "Go and sin no more" (John 8:11). We have been "redeemed by His precious blood" (1 Peter 1:18-19). May we be renewed, day-by-day, by Your grace which never leaves us as we were, Your grace which changes - "Create in us a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within us" (Psalm 51:10).

John 8:21-58

Help us, Lord, to see ourselves as we really are: "everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin" (John 8:34). Help us, also, to see that Your wonderful grace is greater than all our sin. Help us to see that Jesus sets us free (John 8:36). He forgives our sins. He gives us the strength that we need to keep on walking with You. He's leading us on to Your eternal glory. With Jesus as our Saviour, may we know that our sin will never have the last word: "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:57).

John 9:1-41

Lord, we thank You that You bring us out of our darkness and into Your light: "One thing I know. I was blind, now I see" (John 9:25). We only catch a glimpse of Your light. There is still so much darkness. It's not only the darkness around us. It's the darkness in us. Lord, may the glimpses of Your light keep us from being overwhelmed by the darkness.

John 10:1-42

Living for You, Lord, is not easy. Satan sees to that! Help us, Lord, when we're sorely tempted to turn from You, to remember that You are stronger than Satan: "Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4).

John 11:1-44

We thank You, Lord, that Your Son, Jesus, is "the Resurrection and the Life" (John 11:25). His promise is given to those who believe in Him: "he who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live" (John 11:25). Help us, when we hear these words of hope, to say 'Yes' to Jesus when He puts to us His question, ""Do you believe this?" (John 11:26).

John 11:45-12:36

We thank You, Lord, for Jesus. He died on the Cross for us. Through His death, Satan is defeated. Through His death, we are saved. Thank You, Lord, for this mighty victory over Satan. Thank You for this great salvation for us.

John 12:37-13:20

Help us, Lord, not to be secret disciples. May we be unashamed to say that we belong to Jesus - to take our stand for Jesus. Help us not to think of Him only as our personal Saviour. Give us the strength that we need to confess Him before others - to confess Him as our Lord.

John 13:21-14:14

When, Lord, we face difficult times, help us to look beyond them - to Your glorious future. Jesus is "preparing a place for us in Your House" (John 14:2). When we feel low, may His precious promise of heavenly and eternal glory fill us wiyth Your joy and Your strength (Nehemiah 8:10).

John 14:15-15:17

Lord, we come to You in our weakness. You give to us Your strength. Without Jesus, we can do nothing (John 15:5). With Jesus as our Saviour - His Word abiding in us (John 15:7) and the Holy Spirit teaching us all things (John 15:26), we are led into a life of fruitfulness (John 15:12,16-17). May it be "the fruit of the Spirit" - "love, joy, peace ... " (Galatians 5:22-23).

John 15:18-16:33

Lord, we face many problems and difficulties. You are greater than all of them! This is Good News - and it fills our hearts with joy. "The world is trying to squeeze us into its mould" (Romans 12:2) - but You come to us with Your Word of victory: "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4). You call us to trust in You, to be led in Your way of victory: "Who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1 John 5:4-5).

John 17:1-26

We thank You, Lord, that Jesus is praying for us. He is seated at Your right hand - and He has not forgotten us. Often, we forget Him. He never forgets us. He keeps on praying for us - "He ever lives to make intercession for us" (Hebrews 7:25). He prays that we "may be one" (John 17:11).When we are tempted to go the way of Judas Iscariot, "the one who chose to be lost" (John 17:12), help us to "take note of those who create dissensions", to "avoid them" and to "maintain the unity of the Spirit" (Jude 4; 1 John 2:18-19; Romans 16:17-18).

John 18:1-27

We thank You, Lord, that Your Son, Jesus, drank from the cup of our condemnation so that we might drink from the cup of His salvation. What a great thing Jesus has done for us. He has done all that needed to be done - for us to be forgiven by You. We thank You that Jesus, the risen Lord, gives us a new beginning - the new beginning that comes from Your Holy Spirit, the new beginning that turns sinful failures into faithful servants.

John 18:28-19:16

We thank You, Lord, that Jesus took our sin - and we receive His salvation. Is there anything better than this? No! This is the best. Jesus is the best. We look at Him - crucified for us, and we say, "Hallelujah! What a Saviour!"

John 19:17-20:10

We thank You, Lord, that, when Jesus died on the Cross, He did all that needed to be done for our salvation. From the Cross, He mad this great declaration: "It is finished" (John 19:30). These were not words of despair. They are words of triumph. Beyond the Cross, there was something elsethat needed to be done. It was something that only You could have done. You raised Jesus from the dead. No-one else could have done this. Resurrection is Your work. To You alone be all the glory - forever and ever!

John 20:11-31

We thank You, Lord, that Your Son, Jesus, is "our Lord and our God" (John 20:28). We thank You that, through Jesus, the risen Lord, we have received Your gift of eternal "life" (John 20:31). As we think of all that You have done for us and given to us, may we keep on trusting You, giving thanks to You and living to bring glory tp Your great Name - the Name of our salvation.

John 21:1-25

We thank You, Lord, for the words of Jesus - "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19). This is the call of Your grace. It is our Saviour who calls us. He calls to receive His forgiveness - and to follow Him. It is the call to discipleship. We're not to keep our distance. We're to draw near to Jesus - and follow in His footsteps. It's the call to be fruitful. We're not to keep the Good News to ourselves. We're to share Jesus' love with others.We're to bring others to Him. Lord, help us to receive Your grace, to follow your Son, and to bring people to Him.