Jesus Prayed for Me Today

I read my Bible every day. Usually it is, well…like reading the Bible. It’s all good stuff and it’s all worth knowing so I try to lock as much of it in my brain as possible. But every once in a while I’ll read something that punches me right in the face – a verse or passage that totally connects with me for whatever reason.

I had one of those moments last night when I was reading John 17. It is right after the last supper and Jesus and his disciples are all still sitting around the table having a post-meal chat. At the end of meal Jesus wraps everything up with a prayer. I was reading through this when John 17:20 pops up: I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me because of their testimony.

Jesus prayed for me. Two thousand years ago at the last supper, the night before he was arrested and finally killed, Jesus prayed for me. And for you. He prayed for every one of us who follow him today. It blows my mind that I was on his mind even then and that he prayed specifically for me – for us. So as I read the rest of this passage, I imagined what this prayer really meant for me as Jesus sought God the Father on my behalf:

My prayer is not for the world, but for Chris, because he belongs to you…During
my time here, I have kept him safe. I guarded him so that he would not be lost. I have given him your word. And the world hates Chris because he does not belong to the world, just as I do not. I’m not asking you to take him out of the world, but to keep him safe from the evil one. Chris is not a part of this world any more than I am. Make him pure and holy by teaching him your words of truth. As you sent me into the world, I am sending Chris into the world.

My prayer for Chris is that he will be one, just as you and I are one, Father – that just as you are in me and I am in you, so he will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me. I have given Chris the glory you gave me, so that he may be one as we are – I in him and you in me, all being perfected into one. (John 17:9-19)

How does it sound when you put your name in there?