I’m not gonna to lie (not that I have in the past) . . . I like being prayed for . . . especially when it’s by someone who just seems to be a real prayer warrior. On those occasions where my name has been lifted to the throne by a brother or sister who has been graced with a special fervency, it’s had a way of being both comforting and encouraging. There’s something about knowing that your name is being spoken into heaven’s portals . . . something that makes you grateful . . . something that makes you stronger . . . something that makes you more determined, by God’s grace, to keep on keepin’ on. I’m thinking that’s why I so enjoy lingering over the last few verses of John 17 . . . why I savor the Savior praying for me . . . why I like to pray with Jesus.

“I do not pray for these alone [the disciples], but also for those who will believe in Me through their word . . . ” (John 17:20)

To be prayed for by Jesus . . . to have our name spoken before the throne of God by the King of kings . . . how amazing is that? Talk about your prayer warrior . . . talk about access to the throne . . . talk about words which are certain to have an eternal impact . . . that’s talking about Jesus’ prayer life. And, at least part of it . . . and I’m thinking a big part . . . concerns us. We who were redeemed through His precious blood . . . those given to Him by the Father . . . those who are eternally linked to Him as a body to the Head . . . those eternally betrothed to Him as a bride to the Bridegroom . . . those eternally inhabited by Him as living stones built into a holy temple . . . those eternally serving Him as kings and priests in the courts of our God.

And until the coming of perfection (and maybe afterwards as well, I don’t know), He prays for us. Our blessed Savior even now is at the right hand of God making intercession for us (Rom. 8:34) . . . “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Heb. 7:25)

I can imagine some of the things on His “Things to Pray for Pete” list . . . but, here in John’s Gospel, there are some things on the list that are not left to my imagination. He prays that I would know a unity within the body of believers and, that as a body, we would know a communion with the Father and Son which is modeled after the fellowship They experience within the Trinity. He expresses His desire to the Father that we who are His might be with Him where He is . . . that we might behold His glory . . . “the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). And He asks that the love with which the Father loved the Son would abide in His children . . . and that He, Himself, would be in them.

How’s that for a set of prayer requests? Desired by the Son . . . spoken to the Father . . . energized by the Spirit . . . and about us. Hmmm . . . pretty amazing.

Thank You, Lord Jesus for praying for me . . . I add my “amen” to Your supplications. May I continue to know sweet fellowship with Your people . . . may we, as a body, know a real, active, and intimate communion with You. I too desire to be with You . . . to behold Your glory . . . to worship at Your feet . . . to inhabit that place You have been preparing for me for the last 2,000 years. Until then I also join You in asking that I might know more and more the love of God . . . and that I would, by Your grace and through Your Spirit, know more of Your living presence in my life.

For my blessing, for sure . . . but more importantly, for Your glory . . . amen!