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 clear in verse 15 that He isn’t asking that those who believe in Him to be taken out of the world. However much we might want or even 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 be reassured 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). And later on in this chapter, 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 Him to live among us (v. 21).

So, while we remain in this sinful 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 17:11-15 (ESV)

11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.