This week at my church we began a campaign called “One Prayer”. This is an interesting series because for the next four weeks ours is just one of over 1,300 all around the world that are going to be exploring the concept that Jesus prayed “Make them One” in John 17.

This being the first week, the pastor who originated the series Craig Groeschel out of Oklahoma visited my church via video. As he launched the series there were two things that really stood out to me and I want to share them with you.

In the first statement he said, “Instead of asking God for everything that we want, perhaps we should focus on becoming the answer to HIS prayer.” That really hit me. He prayed for us to walk in love. To be unified. Sounds like a good goal for me today.

The second thing that caught my attention was the concept that for us to really walk in unity, we really need to be focused on One enemy. Instead of fighting each other we need to fight the one who has come to steal, kill, and destroy. The church that has slightly different doctrine is not my enemy. The person I play basketball who hates my faith with is not my enemy. The anti-Christian movement that calls me an infidel is not even my enemy. I have one enemy. He is the one who is bound for hell and is trying to take as many with him as possible. He is the one who steals hope and suggests suicide. He is the one who offers fear and shame. He is the only enemy I have..and the only one we have as Christians. And, if we are ever going to be who God has called us to be and truly impact the world with the truth of the gospel of Christ, he is the one that we must stand against.

He is our enemy, but don’t forget he is defeated. If you resist him he will flee. If you stand in truth his lies are exposed and deemed powerless. He can not stand in the presence of Jesus and if Christ lives in you, greater is He who is in you then he that is in the world.

I was really challenged with those two things yesterday and thought i would share.

Sean