David Jeremiah (February-11-2024) Daily Devotional: Jesus Prays: For the Church
Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. - John 17:11
Recommended Reading: John 17:9-19 - 9 “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
Bible scholars view John 17 with awe. This is the prayer Jesus prayed near the Kidron Valley after He left the Upper Room but before He entered Gethsemane on the final night of His natural life. It’s the longest prayer we have from Jesus. In verse 11, He prayed for His disciples, for His Church, and for us. He told the Father He was leaving His children in the world as He returned to heaven, and He asked the Father to watch over them, protect them, and make them one.
Alexander Maclaren had an interesting application. Jesus was leaving people behind, but He knew how to commit the ongoing work to the Father. “Happy [are] we if we can leave our unfinished tasks to be taken up by God, and trust those whom we leave undefended to be shielded by Him!” wrote Maclaren.
Let’s learn from the Lord to do all we can and to entrust the future prayerfully to the Father.
Christ’s prayer for us should be our aim and deepest desire for ourselves. - Alexander Maclaren