121 Days of Prayer

So Must the Son of Man Be Lifted Up

The purposes of this prayer are: Salvation, Lovingkindness, Increased Faith and Illumination.

God of Creation, when Nicodemus, a Pharisee who was beginning to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, came to him at night, Jesus told him that nobody could see the kingdom of God without being born from above, and being born of water and the Spirit (John 3:3–5). Jesus explained, “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.” John 3:11–16 (NRSV). Heavenly Father, just as the Israelites who had been bitten by poisonous snakes could gaze at a bronze serpent lifted up on a pole and live (Numbers 21:9), Christians can look to Jesus, who had been lifted up on a cross and died as a sacrifice for our sins, and believe and thereby gain eternal salvation. Our eyes are fixed on Jesus, now and forever. Amen.