He Prayed for You {John 17}

Scripture Reading: John 17

I was once sitting in church listening to a preacher go on and on about all those who had come before me; my grandparents, parents and so on who had prayed for me, when I suddenly realized I couldn’t confirm or deny if anyone up until that day had ever prayed for me before then. Imagine that! And then the Lord reminded me that He had long before I was ever born. All the way back in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus was praying for you and me.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent Me.  I have given them the glory that you gave Me, that they may be one as we are one—  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.

“Father, I want those you have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved me before the creation of the world” John 21:20-24

Gethsemane was not actually a park, but an olive grove. It was a place where Jesus and the disciples went often to pray without fear of being interrupted.

I don’t know if you’ve come from a long line of godly believers who were forever interceding for you, or if you’re like me, and don’t know if there was ever another person who interceded for you, but whatever the case, all of us were on His heart and mind that night of Jesus’ arrest.

When I think it that way, His prayer seems to take on more weight in my eyes. It definitely causes me to want to do all I can to fulfill what was so heavy on His heart that night. Don’t you? 

First and foremost, Jesus prayed, “all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent Me”

Jesus wanted us to be unified.

If you're like me and long to please Him, we can call on His Spirit’s to help us live in harmony with all believers as best we can. I know there will always be some that will be at odds with us no matter what we do, but as far as it depends upon us, we can live in peace with those individuals too! It might not always be easy, but we know we can seek His help with this, especially knowing how passionate He is about it.

I believe it all starts with focusing on Jesus! Spending quality time with Him each day and then the closer we draw to Him the more like Him we’ll be and His desires will become our desire.

His second petition was, “Father, I want those you have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved me before the creation of the world”

I remember once hearing someone describe Enoch's relationship with God. If you’ll remember Enoch was taken off the earth by God and never died. The pastor implied that Enoch walked so closely with The Lord that one evening God said to Enoch, “We’re closer to My home this night why don’t you come home with Me.” And so he did.

That story has always stuck with me, because I believe each of us can grow as close to God as we choose, and I want to be that close, so that one day God will simply invite me to His home that day, and it will be a very sweet time of fellowship. Sweeter than sweet! And the greatest part of all of this is- it’s His desire too!