He prays for me!

I am so thankful that Christ prayed for me and is interceding for me. I spent some time reflecting on the following verses early this week.

Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. - Romans 8:34

"I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them [come again? He is glorified in us? how amazing!]. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 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. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth [wow, how amazing to hear Christ specifically and directly pray for my sanctification in these precise words!]. And for their sake, I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word [that is me! and you!] , that they may all be one, just you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me [a-maz-ing]. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world [oh my heart melts and eyes fill with tears, to hear that it is not only I who long to be with Him and know Him in his glory but that he desires the same (in fact, I would not desire it if he did not desire it first)- come Lord Jesus, come!]. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known [He is not finished with us!], that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." John 17:9-26

This passage is beautiful beyond description. I love revisiting it, and do periodically. What an amazing prayer! What amazing love! What an amazing Savior!

photo: Conestoga House and Gardens, 2010