Pray with Jesus
30 Days in John - day 21
As Jesus prays in John 17, there is no hesitation in His voice. Standing under the shadow of the cross, He does not sound uncertain. He speaks as One who knows the outcome.
So certain was He, He prayed not only for those who already were His disciples, but for those who would join them in the ages to come. He never for a moment entertained the idea that His mission might fail to survive the dark hour that was upon Him.
He never spoke of the outcome of His mission and prefaced it with the word “if.” Jesus knew that all who had been given to Him by His Father would be saved. He knew, without question, that His church would be established, would grow, and would fill the earth.
That is why He prays this way. He is not praying for hypothetical believers or a fragile movement that may or may not survive. He is praying for us — for a real people who would certainly come to faith through the word of the apostles. And He prays for what we would most need: unity, love, and the shared glory of belonging to Him.
We should follow Jesus’ lead in this. Yes, we can’t know the future in the same way Jesus did. Nor can we always know the success of any particular project or undertaking. What we can know — what we can be absolutely sure of — is that Christ’s kingdom will advance. We can know that Christ is building His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
So we should pray with that same settled confidence in the redemptive purposes of God. Not merely that the church will survive — because it will — but that we will be shaped into a holy, loving, and courageous people who reflect Christ clearly in the world.
Join Jesus in praying: “May we be one.”
Not for comfort. Not for reputation.
But so that the world may believe that the Father sent the Son to be its Savior.
Amen