John 17

For a while now I've focused each morning on Jesus' prayer for his disciples on his last night with them ("the night he was betrayed"), found in John 17. I have to admit that however many times I've read this prayer in the past, it never reached me. It never opened my eyes or stirred my heart. I think that probably by the time I reached this chapter I was racing ahead to the events of the crucifixion and resurrection. In any case, I raced past these words, as if they were somehow not meant for me, or of little importance.

Well, that's changed, thank God. This prayer is both inspiring me and convicting me. And amazing me! Really, I've been meditating on it and journaling my thoughts almost verse by verse for some time now, and I can't seem to get past it. Look at our Lord's vision for his disciples, for the lives they would lead after he left them. Check out what he prays for on their behalf, because in praying for his disciples he is praying for you and me (if you, like me, count yourself a disciple of Jesus Christ).

Paul says Christ is interceding for us even now (Rom 8:34). Maybe John 17 gives us some insight into the kind of prayer he is praying on our behalf. I would say more, but I am more or less overwhelmed! (Imagine that, me, at a loss for words!) I will give you just one example of how utterly mind-blowing Jesus is here. He says of his disciples (and by inference of all disciples for all time, including you and me):

They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. [John 17:16]

I'll say no more. If that doesn't mess with your head, nothing will.