21st August 2024
Jesus prayed for you and me
This is the 21st in a series of studies on the subject of prayer
‘My prayer is not for [the disciples] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message…’
John 17:20 (NIVUK)
Even though I’ve written 20 studies on prayer, I still find it difficult to pray. The words don’t always come; I can be too tired in the morning or the evening, and during the day my time can all too easily be filled up with busyness and distractions. If that’s your experience too then don’t despair: in times when I haven’t been able to pray as I would have liked it’s been comforting and reassuring to know that Jesus has prayed for me. With all the things that must have been on his mind, he prayed for you and me the night before he left the upper room to go to the Garden and then on to the cross. Isn’t that incredible?
Jesus asked his Father that we ‘may be one’. He wanted us to have the same relationship with each other that he has with his Father: ‘…Father, just as you are in me and I am in you…’ (v.21). The only way we can be one in our relationships is because we participate in the very life of God. We are drawn into the divine circle of love, as Jesus said, ‘…May they also be in us…’ (v.21). The reason Jesus wants his people to be united together is ‘…so that the world may believe that you have sent me.’ (v.21).
Our close relationship with one another, as we participate in the community of the Trinity, is the power of our evangelistic witness: the world will believe in Jesus when they see him present and powerful in our lives, demonstrated by the love we have for one another. The only way this kind of unity is possible for us is to participate with Jesus, through the love of the Holy Spirit, in the relationship Jesus has with his Father: ‘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.’ (v. 22-23).
Jesus prayed that we would understand that God loves us, just like he knew God loved him. God loves you with a complete and unconditional love. You are his child, and so are your brothers and sisters in Christ. When we grasp that the person sitting next to us in church, or the person in the church down the road, is loved unconditionally by God and is his child, it becomes much more difficult to hold grudges or separate into cliques. It should be the impetus for us to be in complete unity.
Jesus concluded his prayer for us by saying, ‘I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.’ (v.26). I for one am glad that when I find it difficult to pray, Jesus is still praying for me so that I may know the depth of love that his Father has for me, so that his love may be in me, and can then flow out towards others. It’s this love that will bind us together and bring others to faith.
Prayer
Loving Father, thank you for loving us unconditionally. May Christ’s prayer for all believers be answered to your glory. In Jesus’s name, Amen.
Study by Barry Robinson
About the writer:
Barry Robinson is a minister in Grace Communion International and Regional Pastor for Southern England, the Midlands, and Wales
Local congregation:
Grace Communion West Hampstead
Sidings Community Centre
150 Brassey Road
West Hampstead
London
NW6 2BA
Meeting time:
Sunday 12.30 pm
Local congregational contact:
Gordon Brown
gordon.brown@gracecom.church
Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church