It’s a beautiful thought—Jesus prayed for you.
Not just for his disciples who walked with him, but those who would hear about him from them, and those who’d hear from them, and them, and them…and you.
You are part of that great chain of grace.
Your faith is not an accident. It’s the fruit of someone else’s witness, someone else’s love, someone else’s faithfulness to speak or live the story of Jesus in a way that reached you.
And it is our same responsibility to carry on the heart of Jesus’ prayer—our lives, our words, our love might just be the reason someone else comes to know…and believe.
John 17:20
“I’m not praying only for them but also for those who believe in me because of their word.”
Psalm 78:1-7
Listen, my people, to my teaching; tilt your ears toward the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth with a proverb. I’ll declare riddles from days long gone—ones that we’ve heard and learned about, ones that our ancestors told us.
We won’t hide them from their descendants; we’ll tell the next generation all about the praise due the Lord and his strength—the wondrous works God has done.
He established a law for Jacob and set up Instruction for Israel, ordering our ancestors to teach them to their children. This is so that the next generation and children not yet born will know these things, and so they can rise up and tell their children to put their hope in God—never forgetting God’s deeds, but keeping God’s commandments…
Prayer
God,
Grant us that we may set our hope on your name, which is the foundation of all creation. Open the eyes of our hearts, that we may know you—who alone are highest among the high, holy among the holy.
You make your face shine upon us in peace, O Lord, to bring us together by your mighty hand into one church and one spirit.
May we always seek your face and do what is pleasing to you through Jesus Christ our high priest.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.