Jesus is Praying for You
Wrapping our minds around Christ's intercession for us
Perhaps you’re going through a difficult time right now. You reach out to a fellow Christian, a family member, and/or your pastor to ask for prayer. You need help, and you certainly believe God uses prayer in various ways. It brings you great comfort knowing that many people in your life will be praying for you.
But did you know Jesus is praying for you? Did you know He is interceding for you to the Father? As Robert Murray M’Cheyne once wrote, “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.”
I know we believe this as Christians. We affirm that Jesus prays for those whom He purchased. We know He is our High Priest, our intercessor, our friend. But when the going gets tough, when life gets difficult, when rubber meets the road, do we really believe this? As M’Cheyne wrote, I don’t think we’d fear a million enemies or a trillion trials if we truly believed, at all times, that the Son of God was praying for us.
Erik Raymond wrote about this at TGC,
How can these blessed realities but drive us close to the Savior, even to his chest like the Apostle John? He is more committed to his sheep than his sheep are to him. We lag and linger but he is praying while we slumber. The truth of Jesus’ ceaseless, fervent, impassioned, hearty, and successful intercession on my behalf calibrates my wayward heart afresh to the glories of Christ and drops fresh dew from heaven on my earth scorched lips.
Scripture is abundantly clear that not only is Christ praying for His people, but only His people. Jesus does not pray for the entire world. “I am praying for them,” Jesus prayed to the Father in John 17:9. “I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.”
Jesus, as God incarnate, is personally praying for you. He is praying for all those whom God the Father gave Him. He is praying for all those He died for. He knows His people. This post, however, is less about that and more about Jesus’ intercession for you.
It should bring us immense comfort knowing Jesus prays for us every single day. Not a moment goes by that He’s not praying for us. It’s not as if Jesus accomplished His work and then left us to fend for ourselves. We see that not only in Him praying for us, but giving the Holy Spirit to us. We are cared for by God, friend.
I don’t know what it is you’re suffering right now. I don’t know what trial you’re going through, perhaps one that makes you feel like you’re in quicksand, one that causes you to despair. But, friend, how can we despair when we know Jesus prays for us? He is aware of our difficulties; He is caught up on what is wrecking havoc in our lives; He understands our pain, our agony, our frustrations. Jesus is praying for us.
Let’s read that sentence again, and ask the Lord to help you believe it: Jesus is praying for you.
Everything is going to be okay—Jesus is praying for us.
Very comforting!