“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;” (Joh 17:20 AV)
What an amazing statement. John chapter seventeen is the LORD’s prayer for His disciples. In that prayer, He states His prayer is not limited to the disciples at hand. His prayer applies to all those who will come to trust in Him through the ministry of the original group. That would include me. If you know Jesus as your LORD and Savior, that would include you as well. I don’t believe this prayer is for an arbitrary group of saints who would accept Him sometime in the future. This prayer was uttered by the Son of God. He is no less omniscient than the Father. He knows all things including who would accept and who would reject Him. 1900 or so years prior to my decision to trust Him, He knew I would and prayed for me. The prayers Jesus offered up for the few hundred disciples He had at the time of His ascension are the same prayers He offered for me. When I read John chapter seventeen, I read of the prayer Jesus offered to the Father on my behalf. What a truth!
We tend to forget how marvelous and full of wonder our God and Creator is. We tend to forget just how involved God is in our everyday life. We forget the God who made us and saved us also interacts with us in a non-stop fashion. The Bible tells us that before we were formed in the womb of our mothers, God knew us. He knew what we would be. He knew what we would do. He knew how we would respond to His grace. Not only did God know, but He knows now. I cannot help but think one of the most comforting thoughts I could have is that almost two thousand years ago, Jesus was praying for me as an individual person. Almost two millennia ago, the Savior had me on His mind mere hours before He went to His cross. He had never met me. We had never looked one another in the face. I wasn’t like the eleven whom He has spent three-plus years within the trenches of spiritual warfare. He knew me as a future fact of history. Not as a living, breathing, real-time person. Despite being separated by years and distance, the Savior still prayed for me. He knew exactly what choices I would face. He knew how much I would disappoint Him. He knew where I would fail in the commands He had left me. Yet, He prayed for me anyway.
It is one thing to hear the prayers of the saints for you. It is very humbling. Every Wednesday evening, our church has a prayer meeting. We have a Bible lesson then split up for prayer. We have some that pray rather loudly and it is impossible not to notice. Almost every Wednesday evening, our church people pray for me and my wife individually. We love them and do the best we can in meeting their spiritual needs. They reciprocate in praying for their pastor and his wife. This is very humbling. To hear the love-filled words of those who are precious to you is a very special thing. Compound that infinitely and you will have the prayers of the Savior for you as a single person. God prayed for you! Can the human mind fathom that? The Creator of the universe took the time to mention you and your future life to the Father. What a thought! What a thought that thousands of years ago, the Son of God spoke a prayer to the Father in heaven for me, and for you!
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