Thoughts

Design and Photo: Steve Webb

Jesus Prayed For You

Did you know that there is a prayer by Jesus about YOU in the Bible? How exciting is that? Jesus prayed for you before his crucifixion.

He knew he was soon going to be betrayed and turned over to be beaten and hung on a cross. He knew that His purpose would soon be fulfilled, and He prayed to the Father about many things.

And you and I were on His mind.

Hours Before the Crucifixion

Jesus' prayer in John 17 is a marvelous look into the mind of our Savior in the hours before the sacrifice that would change the eternities of those who believe in Him. The events of the coming hours will be the fulfillment of His mission…the reason He gave up the glories of Heaven to be born in a manger some 33 years earlier.

He prayed to the Father, as a Son. “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You…” There had never been a moment when Father and Son were out of touch with one another. Think of it. Jesus was with the Father from eternity past until this very moment when He prayed this prayer. And He knew that in just a few short hours, the Father would turn His face from Him when all the sins of the world would be placed on Him. Jesus would be alone for the first time in all of eternity.

And yet, He thought to pray for you and for me.

But First...

First He prayed for the disciples, that they would be one, as Jesus and the Father were one. And that they would have His (Jesus') joy fulfilled in them. What a prayer! The joy of Jesus fulfilled in them. Think what that means. A perfect, pure joy. A joy that comes for knowing that you have perfect oneness with the Father. That there is nothing separating you from Him. Pure joy.

And Jesus prayed that the Father would not take the disciples out of the world, but that He would keep them (or protect them) from the evil one…from compromise, from falling away, from anything that would keep them from running the race to a victorious finish.

He prayed that the Father would sanctify the disciples by the Father's truth. To sanctify is to set apart for God's purpose. Jesus said, "…by Your truth." How do we know what God's truth is? By reading His Word, hearing it, understanding it and applying it to our lives. Jesus prayed that God's Word would set the disciples apart for His purposes. Beloved, it is impossible for anyone to live a life of close relationship with God, or to be used by God, unless he or she is steeped in the Word of God.

How To Know God

The Christian life is a relationship with the Creator of the Universe. That relationship is kept alive and healthy and strong by staying in contact one with the other. How do we do that? How does God communicate with us? Primarily through the Bible, His Word. We communicate with Him through prayer, as Jesus did.

Jesus' Prayer For You

And after Jesus prayed for His disciples, He prayed for you and for me. He said,

"20I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one, just 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 have sent me. 22The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 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. 24Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me,