Who Prayed for You? | Crossroads Daily

Hey I'm Chuck. I'm Kirsten. I'm Debo. I'm Chris. All right I'm gonna take you guys to Black Church. Okay. Because when I read John 17 I think about a song that I grew up singing in church and I'll sing the first verse and I'll sing the second verse. My mother prayed for me, had me on her mind, took the time and prayed for me. I'm so glad she prayed. I'm so glad she prayed. I'm so glad she prayed for me. And then they would sing this. Jesus prayed for me, had me on his mind, took the time and prayed for me. And I'm so glad he prayed. I'm so glad he prayed. I'm so glad he prayed for me. And I'm telling you when I read this I thought about that song for years. Kirsten keep it going. I mean what an amazing thing to think about. Before you did anything meaningful, before you ever messed up, before you were even born, Jesus prayed for you. How does that make you feel? What strikes you when you think about the fact that you've been prayed for by Jesus? In that scripture, I am just so struck by how desperately Jesus wanted us with him. He so badly is like, God, I want them where I am going. And I just, and I've never listened to that scripture and heard it like I just heard it now. And I am just overwhelmed with that is Jesus's heart. He just wants us where he is. And I will never, I'm going to walk in that today and tomorrow and hopefully the rest of my life. So good. That's hitting you emotionally I can see. Yeah, it's just, it's like a dad just wanting his kids. And at this time Jesus is what like a 30 something year old guy. Like I don't know what the disciples saw him as. I know that they were teenagers, but like for him just to look at these kids and see, and he, Jesus could see generations after them, right? He sees us. He sees you. He sees Eva, Chris, like, and is like, I want them with us and not even to skip ahead. But Jesus on the cross looks at the criminal next to him and is like, whatever, you're coming with me. Like, it doesn't matter what I did yesterday, a year ago, five years from now. Like Jesus wants me with him in paradise and like, praise God for that prayer. So good. It's hard for me to often believe. I think knowing the worst parts of myself and

thinking like, okay, God sees this now. And he also knows the future brokenness. Every way I'm going to mess up. And he's like, yeah, I still want you. That's, it is hard to consistently wrap my mind around for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I think like to think like Jesus was thinking of me, like when I read that, like you just sometimes can just read it and think, oh yeah, he's, he's thinking of the disciples, but to also paint the picture that he's also thinking of me, like it's, it's overwhelming. Like, and it's hard to fathom. Like he was thinking of me. I don't know. It's just like, it's yeah, it's so, yeah, it's so beautiful. It is. It really is. It really is. And I think, you know, this, this is a scripture that kind of falls in the range of Holy Week when we're thinking about all the last week of Jesus. And man, I feel like he gives us these nuggets along the way that make the cross really a crescendo of his love. Right? Yeah. I mean, this is the, you know, a couple of chapters before this, he's washing feet of people who are going to betray him. And, you know, he's a couple of chapters before this talking about the vine and like how, you know, we can abide in him. He promises us the Holy Spirit. So all of these things, like, you know, Jesus is lots of things. He's also generous. Where have you experienced the generosity of Jesus in your life? I mean, the immediate thing that comes to mind for me is I think about this every day when I wake up to a wife who loves me and three kids that I get to raise, that is the generosity of Jesus. It really is his generosity because I get so much joy from being connected to my family. Undeserved, you know, I've squandered that at times. I've not done all the things that I should do. And yet every day I get to wake up in that context. I just look at Jesus and it's like, this is your this is just your generosity to me. So that's one for me, for sure. I think about my family is the generosity of Jesus. Yeah, I think for me it's I I wake up and the fact that I get to do something that I love I I sometimes take that for granted. Yeah, like So I think the work that I get to do every single day and some days are harder than others But like at the end of the day It's it's a gift for me like to do something that I absolutely love and enjoy and something that I feel like God has called

me to do So I feel like that's been really sweet to Encounter. Yeah, that's an amazing gift and you are an amazing gift doing I Would say similar to you Chuck, I would say most of my life I was horribly uncomfortable with the fact of the idea of singleness like I hated being single so much my senior year of high School I for Lent I gave up talking to girls Nothing in my life changed at all But it was such a deeply seeded thing in me of like I was so obsessed with that and was like I feel like a serial dater for so many years of like this needs to fill a hole in my life and Wasn't doing anything to prepare myself to have a family one day to set myself up for that it was just an obsession of like I want to feel good with this and The Lord could have got it up on me a million times in that realm of like, okay You need to have 20 years in the desert to learn like gratitude with me and singleness and no girls. No talk to no girls no food no girls and it felt like the Lord started to just gently push into that part of my life and Way sooner than I would have ever thought like got to bring in a wife and now a daughter that like if you would have if I would look back even five years ago been like I'm not even close to that of Being ready to be in that position, but the Lord was just so Patient and generous when yeah, I was least deserving and least even open for him to be working in my life in that way at all For me I thought of how generous it is that he includes us in his work and then saving the people here I've been able to watch my sit. I got to baptize my sister and my cousins and my Aunt is like following Jesus and starting this journey and I see my mom Just like being interested and curious and things and the fact that he he could do that without me I could go live in Antarctica with the Penguins and he would still do the same work but yet he calls me here with them and

they He like we get to have those conversations about him and he includes me in that work And I just am like in all that that's something he even cares to do That's so good. That's so good. So tomorrow when you wake up How does it change Anything something to know that you've already been prayed for. I think for me it makes me Lean into a confidence that I don't have on my own That no matter what I'm going through it's going to be okay, it's going to be okay that doesn't mean There's not challenge. It doesn't mean that it's gonna be okay in the way that I want it to be. Okay, but Ultimately, it's gonna be okay. I had a fear of death for many years Death was one of those things when it first happened in around my family Nobody explained it to me and it just all felt just out of control and scary And so I've really wrestled with that fear of death And I think it's it's been things like this that have really helped me to to like lessen that fear of death and be okay like If the worst thing that happens to me is that I lose my life At that moment of transition. It's actually the best thing ever. Yeah, and so if that's true Anything short of that It's gonna be okay It's gonna be okay And it's learning to trust that so I think for me it's really helped me have confidence And lean into life in a different way. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I've been waiting for an excuse to share this story it's not that it's not that deep, but I when I used to read the scripture before I Phrased it as a prayer that Jesus gave us. I always read it as like Oh put my eyes on heaven not on the things of this world and when I was in talking about confidence in this pre-prayer I took that a little seriously in college where I would go into my last exams as a senior year like they matter And I just be like, well, I'm not studying because my eyes are on the things of heaven Sure enough. I passed them all and I have no idea guys. I swear the Lord Wow, but I it was like the father in me feels the need to say This is not an advice podcast, but I am thinking of like, man, maybe I should tap into that

every so often though and be like, the Lord has already like saved me and put me on things of heaven and a path of just like miraculous things that he can do. Like he did in exams back when I first heard this. It's just funny. I was like, what was I thinking, but it worked out. I feel like I admit I haven't spent a lot of time reading this and so reading just how lengthy this prayer is and how Jesus is like going in. He's like on our behalf and he's like, I desperately want them with me. And it makes me just like so thankful and grateful. Like I, I want to be in a space of just gratitude and knowing that like the relationship that we have with him is something that like nothing can separate us from the love that he has for us. And so like, that's just like putting me in a space of just like gratitude. And I want to wake up every day thinking that, like thinking in a place of just like, wow, I'm so thankful to have a relationship with Jesus that like nothing can separate, nothing, nothing I do today, nothing I'll do tomorrow, like can actually separate me from that love that he had in that moment and that he has for me now. I think it's freeing too to know what does God actually want and expect out of me in this prairie? I think you said this eternal life that they know you talking about the father and my entire life it was like, well, if Jesus was here right in front of me, he would just be really disappointed that I'm not doing a million different things to like, I'm not reading more, I'm not praying more, I'm not volunteering more. And to hear in this prayer, him being like this eternal life, this is what I care about, that you would know God in just the way that we can get to know people in our lives. Like we just want to be in communion relationship with him. It's feel like it's so freeing to just be like, that's my baseline, no God. And then I get to love freely and not just be paranoid all the time of like, all right, what does God think about me right now? Like if I die, like, is it like, did it outweigh, like, did I do the right?

It's like, I just got to know him, which is easier said than done. But it is the one thing, right? It is the main thing, man. There's so much in this chapter. We didn't even talk about unity. We didn't even talk about this whole idea of like, I'm not going to remove you from the world, but protect you from the evil. There's so much in this prayer. Read this prayer. But today, I hope what you remember is Jesus prayed for you. He had you on his mind. And I pray that that just changes everything for you today.