How Does It Feel to Know that Jesus Prayed for You?
Wednesday, April 16
Luke 22: 31, 32
Peter was one of the first disciples, humble, brash, courageous at times… and flakey and weak at other times… but in the end, strong.
At the last supper, the Lord’s Supper, the meal we are commanded as His Church to participate in regularly, Jesus told Peter that He had already prayed for Peter – that “his faith would not fail!”
31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift you men like wheat; 32 but I have prayed for you, that your faith will not fail; and you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Even though Peter’s brain, behavior, and mouth failed – badly – his faith did not fail.
Jesus’ prayer apparently did not specify whether He included praying that Peter would not sin. (He entrusted that prayer to His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane.) Importantly, Jesus did pray that Peter’s faith would not fail. And it did not.
Do you think Peter remembered this word of our Lord when he ran sniveling from the servant girl whom he had lied to about “not knowing the man…”? At some point, it may have been the powerful words of Jesus’ which pulled him back from the brink of despair.
Jesus prayed for Peter that night. Who else did He pray for? That same night He prayed for you and me:
“And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, so that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I am not asking on behalf of these [the 11 disciples] alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word,21 that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. (Jn. 17)
In this High Priestly Prayer, Jesus prayed for you. He asked that you and I would be sanctified by Him and His Word. [Are we “continuing in the Word”?] He asked that we would be unified. [Are we one with each other? Do we know each other to be “one?”] He asked that our faith in Him would keep us in the mystical communion of the fellowship between Christ and His Church. [Are you and I in that communion?] He asked that people would see our faith and works and come to faith and glorify God the Father. [Are people coming to faith in God through us?]
How do you feel about these prayers Jesus said for you? Maybe like Peter felt, after he failed? I hope so. Because all of us have failed, but Jesus has prayed for us. I am greatly encouraged by that and those prayers!
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, Please continue to advocate for us. May we feel inspired to respond to Your prayers for us. Amen.