JESUS PRAYED FOR YOU

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” —John 17:20, 21

One of the strongest evidences for Christianity about 2,000 years after its beginnings is Christianity itself. That Christianity has grown from its mustard-seed-like beginning in a backwater of the Roman Empire with a few frightened disciples and the story of someone executed as a criminal but somehow returned to life is a remarkable testimony.

For every follower of Jesus today, there is a chain of sharing—parents to children, colleagues to friends, believers to neighbors, preachers to hearers, and strangers to strangers—that stretches all the way back to the disciples who first heard Jesus pray this prayer.

We are privileged to have benefited and received from such a long line of witnesses across the centuries. And we carry the responsibility of continuing the unfinished task that Jesus gave to His disciples, and which has now been handed on to us.

As recipients of this story, this testimony, and this task, we are encouraged to know that Jesus prayed for us in His prayers for His followers. “Those who will believe in me through their message”—as Jesus phrased it—includes you and me.

He prayed that we would be united in our connection with God and that through us and our witness, still more people today will believe in Jesus and believe that He is who He claimed to be. Pause and reflect on this: Jesus prayed for you and for the opportunities you have to share the story of His love. As we faithfully play our roles as witnesses to His story, Jesus prayed that the world and the people around us will know who He is and how much God loves them (see John 17:23).