Jesus Prayed for Me!

Over the last week I decided to begin reading the New Testament from beginning to the end, I mean after all, like so many others I have a lot more time on my hand than I normally would, so why not.  So I began on Monday with the book of Matthew and today I finished with the book of John.  So 6 days and I have managed to get through 4 books…of course I could have read more and I actually thought I should have until this morning as I sat in the corner of my little prayer closet and began to finish up the book of John. I just felt like I needed to get in my prayer closet to read this morning, something I had yet to do while I started reading, but somehow it felt right…actually I felt I was being drawn to do so, so I did.  As I read I felt the Word come to life as I never have before. 

I picked up where I left off last night in John 13 with Jesus washing the Disciples feet.  I could feel it, I could smell the air, my heart, my mind, and my soul was completing into every word I was reading…it was like I was there…like I was momentarily transported to that time, like I wasn’t even reading.  I felt like I was in the middle of the story witnessing what was taking place and I was seeing things and receiving things that I had never gotten before.  I found myself nodding my head in agreement with Jesus as He was talking with His Disciples and I felt my heart throbbing when they didn’t understand when He tried to explain to them what was about to happen. 

So many things started coming together for me from the Gospels that I had read over the last week, but I also found myself thinking, what did I miss, should I read them all again before I continue on.  After all, this morning was more powerful than any Bible reading that I had ever experienced.  Jesus continued with all the lessons He had been teaching His Disciples and us during His time on earth.  There are a few lessons that that I found to be the prominent ones throughout the four Gospels!  

We are to love God with everything we have in us…I mean everything…He tells us this in so many different ways, but He is also particularly explicit with this command and goes on to say that we are to love the Lord God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind!  This is in all the Gospels and there is no questioning or debating this command!  He also tells us that we are to love each other…He tells us this in a variety of parables and shows us in how He, Himself, treats every person He comes in contact with, but in this too, He is very explicit with and states that this is the second of the greatest commandments…to love your neighbor as yourself!  (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:27) So what have I gathered from this?  LOVE!!!!!  We know that God is Love and Jesus tells us the greatest commandment is to love Him and then to love others!  So love, just love! 

The next thing that stood out to me throughout the Gospels is SERVE!  Again, Jesus spoke many parables about servanthood, but He also showed how to serve in the way He served others, the way He treated everyone.  No matter who they were, where they were from, what they had, what they didn’t have, my Jesus served them…He treated them like they were the most important person in the world to Him!  He valued them like they had never been valued before!  It is what He did when He washed the Disciples feet, He was showing them how much he loved and valued them, but He was also teaching them that they were to do the same!  That hit me…am I washing people’s feet?  Sometimes we as humans run things through our mind and make excuses to make ourselves feel like we are because we do all this “stuff” for Jesus, but many times that stuff is what we choose to do or what we want to do and it’s all clean and pretty!  Sometimes, many times, what Jesus asks us to do is not what we would choose to do for ourselves and it’s not clean, it’s not pretty…in fact it puts us on our knees and it causes us to wash dirt off of other’s feet! (Matthew 20:27-28; 23:11; Mark 10:45; John 13:12-17)

And then I came upon John 17 and my life, my heart, my soul is forever changed. Prior to this chapter Jesus had been talking to His Disciples about what was about to take place with his crucifixion, but of course, they did not completely understand.  He told them that they would be scattered and basically leave Him alone, but it would be okay, His Father would be with Him…then it happened…He began to pray!  We find throughout the Gospels that there were many times that Jesus prayed, however, this particular prayer that John documented is different and it is oh so special.  Jesus prayed for Himself to be able to glorify His Father in what was to come, then He prayed for his Disciples, He prayed for their protection, guidance, and strength, but then He prayed for me!  Well, theoretically, He prayed for all believers, but as I read I thought He was praying for me!  He knew me!  He knew that I would be right here in this closet reading this very prayer that He prayed!  He knew this life would be difficult for His children!  He knew the world would hate His children and that we would need the Holy Spirit to guide us!  He knew that if we were to love and serve like He taught us that it would also come with a lot of heartache and we would need the strength that could only come from Him to fulfill that calling. 

He prayed for me, He prayed for little old, insignificant me!  He prayed for me because he loves me and I am valued by Him!  He knows every heartache that I will every face! He knows every hurt that will ever fill my heart, my mind, and my soul.  He knows every tear that will ever fall from my eyes.  He knows every trial that I will ever have to face.  He knows everything and everyone that will ever come up against me.  He knows what path He wants me to take.  He knows the blessings He has in store for me.  He knows the love that will be gifted to me.  He knows the talks that will take place between only He and I.  He knows that I can never fully comprehend how much I fully need Him.  He knows that the disappointments, the struggles, the trials, the hurts, the tears, the wonderings, the valleys only draw me closer to who He truly is.  Those things only make His love stronger in me and therefore, make the love and servanthood for others stronger too.  He knows that I need laughter, happiness, and joy that this life brings and that I will get plenty of that too and all of that will come embedded with a love that is incomprehensible, but I have also learned through all this that His ways are truly higher than mine and His thoughts are oh, so much higher than mine. (Isaiah 55:8-9) 

He prayed for me ya’ll, I can’t stop thinking about it!  Sure I have read it before, but it gripped me like never before…it’s like it was beautiful before when I read it, but now it is beyond a word that I can even think of!  It is a feeling that I can never explain…I just feel it; I want you to feel it too! 

As I continue to read through His Word, I want to encourage you to do so as well.  Find a quiet place, whether it is your prayer closet, your porch, somewhere outside, or anywhere you can get alone with the Living Word of God and just allow God to breath it into you because no blog, no testimony, no social media post, no word from a friend will ever come close to what the Holy Spirit can give you through the reading of the Bible!