July 22 – Jesus’ Prayer – John 17
Jesus prays for Himself, His disciples, and believers. He begins His prayer with a posture of prayer. This was His final prayer before going to the cross. Jesus prays for Himself in verses 1-5. Everything that He asked for Himself was to ultimately bring glory to the Heavenly Father. Jesus then prays for the disciples, His group of devoted followers, in verses 6-19. Among other things, Jesus prays for them to be kept from evil, keep them unified, and for their sanctification. In verses 20-26 Jesus prays for believers. These are folks that have trusted Jesus as Saviour. Jesus prays for them to stay unified in two back to back verses.
It is interesting to note that Jesus made it a point to mention that He did not pray for the world or those that reject Christ. He was focused on those that followed Him. Repeatedly, Jesus asked for the unity of Christians to be as close as the unity of Jesus and the Heavenly Father.
