How closely do you think your prayers line up with what Jesus is praying for you? He is, after all, at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us even now (Romans 8:34). So, what do you think He is praying for?

Well, however we might want to be insulated from the hostility of unbelievers, and even though verse 14 indicates that Jesus is well aware of their opposition to us, He makes it clear in verse 15 that He isn’t asking that those who believe in Him be taken out of this sinful, dangerous world. However much we might want or even pray for a life free from any sort of unpleasantness or conflict, that is simply not God’s will.

Instead, in verse 15 Jesus prays that the Father would keep us safe from the evil one in the midst of whatever persecution we might face. That echoes the first request He makes of the Father in verse 11: that God would keep us in His name. So if we are praying for safety in times of spiritual warfare, we can rest assured that Jesus is praying the same thing for us.

But today’s passage isn’t a call to mere stoicism in the face of trials. For in verse 13 Jesus also prays that we might have His joy fulfilled in ourselves. That’s the good news: no matter how much opposition we might face, and no matter how difficult the Christian life may be at times, Jesus wants following Him to be a joyful fulfillment of the very purpose for which we have been created.

But there’s one more thing that He wants for us: that all those who love and trust Him would be united, that we would be one (v. 11). Moreover, He makes it clear that our unity will be one of our most powerful evangelistic tools. It is because we are one that the world will know that the Father really did send Jesus to live among us (v. 21).

So, while we remain in this sinful, dangerous world, let’s seek to bear witness to Christ through our loving unity with all who trust in Him. And in this way, may we experience the fulness of His joy.

John 17:1-26 (NASB)

These things Jesus spoke; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee,
2 even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life.
3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.
4 “I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.
5 “And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.
6 “I manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world; Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me, and they have kept Thy word.
7 “Now they have come to know that everything Thou hast given Me is from Thee;
8 for the words which Thou gavest Me I have given to them; and they received them, and truly understood that I came forth from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send Me.
9 “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine;
10 and all things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.
11 “And I am no more in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are.
12 “While I was with them, I was keeping them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me; and I guarded them, and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
13 “But now I come to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy made full in themselves.
14 “I have given them Thy word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 “I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.
16 “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth.
18 “As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
19 “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
20 “I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;
21 that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.
22 “And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one;
23 I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me.
24 “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.
25 “O righteous Father, although the world has not known Thee, yet I have known Thee; and these have known that Thou didst send Me;
26 and I have made Thy name known to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou didst love Me may be in them, and I in them.”