Prayer... Jesus Style

I was up oddly early this morning for a day I didn't have to be to school until 10. I was "up" with a surprising amount of "up-ness" considering I had been up until 12:30. And I discovered that doing your devotions when you're actually awake is a lot more rewarding. Imagine that, if you stay awake while doing it, you actually retain something!

So what did I retain? I'm in the process of going over all the times in the N.T. that Jesus prayed. I don't really know where the idea came from, but I was/am curious to see how/when/what He prayed for. So far, I'm only in to the third one. There is of course, The Lord's Prayer, which almost everyone knows. Besides that though, there are different ones here and there that I honestly had never really looked at in any depth before. Looking at the way that Jesus prayed, how He prayed, what He prayed for, and the overall purpose of His prayers is really, really interesting!

This morning I was reading John 17, which is "The High Priestly Prayer." Jesus prayed this prayer right before Judas betrayed Him. I don't have a lot of intellectual meaning to give, I haven't been looking at sermons or studying it in depth (yet), but I do want to share what was pressed upon my heart this morning. There are three major things.

1. Jesus' purpose in all He did was to glorify His Father. In the first eight verses, Jesus is all about giving God the credit for everything He has done so far. He says that "they have come to know that everything Thou hast given Me is from Thee." Everything Jesus said and did was of His Father. I knew this already, but to see/hear how Jesus desired to glorify His Father was further inspiration to try and do the same.

2. We are sanctified (set apart for sacred use, made holy, purified) in truth, and God's word is truth. All the more reason to reverence His word and spend as much time in it as we can.

"Sanctify them in the truth; They word is truth."

(vs. 17)

3. Jesus prayed for US. The whole rest of the chapter, Jesus is praying for us. My favorite snippets...

"Holy Father, keep them in Thy name,

the name which Thou hast given Me,

that they may be one, even as We are."

(vs. 11)

"I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world,

but to keep them from the evil one."

(vs. 15)

"Father, I desire that they also,

whom Thou hast given Me,

be with Me where I am,

in order that they may behold My glory,

which Thou hast given Me;

for Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world.

(vs. 24)

It blows my mind that Jesus knew that He was about to be betrayed, tortured, and crucified... And yet He loved us and cared for us so much that He spent that night praying for us. Praying that we would be unified in Christ, that God would protect us from the evil one, and that we would be with Him and see His glory.

The idea that He cares that much about me is mind-blowing. I really can't begin to sum up how this makes me feel.. I am His daughter and He loves me. He cares about me. He wants me to know Him and His Father. He wants me to be safe. He wants me to be with Him. And for that, I am thankful.