Jesus Prayed For You

(John 17:20-21)

One of the last things the Lord did before He left this earth was to pray for the church, and more than that Jesus prayed for you. As He prayed for His people he gave us many insights into the relationship He had with the Father, and for us, the relationship between Him, the Father and ourselves.

This section of scripture is truly beautiful. You cannot read it without feeling the depth of love that the Lord has for you and the strength of His relationship with you. Read on and understand the beauty and wonder of this scripture.

Jesus Prayed for You

This section of scripture reads as follows.

20 “I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word,
21 that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

Think of this. The Lord was praying for those who stood with Him in that place at that time. How would they have felt hearing these words, knowing that the Father was listening to Jesus and agreeing with Him that they loved those people standing there with Him. Think of and try to feel the emotions they may have felt…the peace, the joy, the love, the fellowship and the power of God upon them.

Now re-read those words and know that Jesus said these same things about you and me. He was praying not just for those people there and then but for all who believed in Christ Jesus through their words. That’s YOU! Jesus was talking about YOU and me in those few words and we should likewise feel the same joy, love, peace and so on through His words as His followers did in that day.

How does it make you feel to know that your Lord and Saviour, the king of Kings and Lord of lords prayed for you? That He asked the Father of all to look after you and be with you? I cannot even comprehend such a thing, given the weakness and life we led before coming to Jesus and knowing that it is only by His Grace and the love of God that we have this opportunity to know Him.

And there is more…

One With God

Not only did Jesus pray for us, but He asked the Father that we should be in a relationship with both of them. Not just as good friends, or best buddies or BFF’s, but so close a relationship with God that we are ONE with them.

The only other relationship that can even begin to compare to such as this is a true marriage based on love. And yet that is even a pale shadow compared to the relationship Jesus was asking the Father for us to have with them.

He wants us to be as one. Not a bunch of individuals who are simply like-minded, but to BE as He is. John spoke about this in his letter saying,

In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17)

Jesus is righteous, holy, just and the very image of the Father Himself. The Father is God and IS love. And that is how Jesus wants us to be like in this world, “…as he is so are we in this world.”

Jesus prayed for you and me that we would be one with them and with each other. And to be one with God is to live a life in the love of God. To see, think, act, behave and so on in accordance with the love of God. When we reach that state, then we truly will be able to be one with them.

But it does not happen overnight. We need to learn the way of love. We need to be born again and become infants in Christ Jesus, then we must learn to crawl, walk and become mature in Christ. If we are willing to make the effort and the sacrifice to do this, and there will need to be sacrifices made, then it is entirely possible to achieve such a place in this lifetime.

Fortunately, even if we do not achieve that hallowed place in this lifetime, we are not rejected or discarded by the Lord. That is why God gave us His grace so that our sins could be covered and our mistakes overlooked until we reach the place of perfection where we are truly one with Jesus Christ and one with God. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 8:10-12,

10 And in this matter I give my advice: it is best for you now to complete what a year ago you began not only to do but to desire,
11 so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have.
12 For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a man has, not according to what he has not.

While he was talking about the principle of giving, the same principle applies to all things in the Lord. Jesus is looking for those who are willing to do what is good, right and true. He is looking for those who are willing to follow Him and learn His ways. And if they fall along the way, as they will from time to time, He does not hold it against them because they are seeking and desiring what is right. As the last verses says, “…if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a man has, not according to what he has not.”

Each of us stands according to what we have, not what we do not have. And if we are unable to achieve all that He would have for us in this lifetime through some reason or another, we will still be accepted for what we have, even if it is only the most basic faith that Jesus died for us. What more could we ask than that?

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John

Hi! I’m John, the owner, author, and editor of this site. Over the past 50+ years as a Christian I have been teaching, preaching and writing about the Bible to help Christians gain a deeper insight into the scriptures that are easily understood. I also answer specific Bible related questions, so feel free to contact me.