Praying with Jesus
Musings from the Garden
By Peggy Wyar
I have been going through a prayer for prodigals’ devotional book that has been very rich and thought provoking. The last excerpt I read challenged me to pray for the prodigal using John 17 as the model. Before I unpack this, consider who God tells us we are in this scripture:
1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
According to I Peter 2, every believer in Jesus is called to a royal priesthood, and the chapter in John is often referred to as Jesus’ priestly prayer (John 17). As priests, we are those who mediate between God and sinful man. We have a responsibility to carry out worship and ministry in the sanctuary where God dwells. Since Pentecost, His dwelling is the Body of Christ. We are stewards of Jesus’ ministry here on earth, and a very important part of His ministry is to pray for His church.
As I looked more closely at John 17, I made a list of specific prayers that could be prayed for prodigals (as the devotional suggested) but was aware that these are prayers from the heart of Jesus for the church as a whole. Here is my list to pray with Jesus as He prays for His chosen ones:
1. Father, that they may know You – which is eternal life.
2. Father, protect them by the power of Your Name; protect them from the evil one.
3. Sanctify them by the truth – Your word is truth.
4. Father, that they may be one as You and Jesus are one.
5. May they be brought into complete unity to let the world know how You love them.
6. Let them be with You and see Your glory and have a full measure of joy within.
7. May Your love overwhelm their hearts.
As I looked over this list, I noticed that none of these prayers fall into the “fix it” category that my natural bent would be to pray for my prodigals. Jesus desires us to know Him, to be loved by Him, to be with Him, to be sanctified in truth, and full of His joy. Looking again at 1 Peter 2:10, I was reminded of some discussions my husband and I have been having about mercy.
Jesus already paid for every sin any of us will ever commit in our lives on earth. Once we confess to Him our need for His saving grace, all our sins are cleansed by His blood. We may still miss the mark, but forgiveness has already been provided. God’s mercy says to you and me that we no longer have to pay the debt for that offense. No guilt or beating ourselves up or shame is necessary to make amends, God has forgiven us and cleansed us completely. Our response is to gratefully acknowledge His mercy every time the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. We stumble, but it is not where we have to stay. The kindness of our God leads us to repentance, which is the change of our minds and our turning back to God. Staying stuck in our sin, with no change of heart or mind, leads to loss of intimacy with Jesus. The freedom we have in Christ is that we are no longer exclusively sinners. Instead, as His chosen ones, we are lovers of God who still occasionally sin.
Since we have received such mercy, we can pray differently. We can respond with mercy to those who cause us harm. We can pray for what others really need, which often goes beyond what we see physically. God wants to restore, reconcile, renew, and release His church to be what this world needs – the image of God in the flesh. May we be merciful in prayer and deed just as God is merciful with us.