I HAVE PRAYED FOR YOU
The Lord said to Peter, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not” (Luke 22:32). I look at this wonderful example of Christ’s love and realize I know almost nothing about how to love those who fall. Surely Jesus is the “friend that sticketh closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24).
Jesus sees both the good and the bad in Peter and concludes, “This man is worth saving! Satan desires him, but I desire him all the more.” Peter truly loved the Lord and the Lord truly loved Peter even though He knew his personality traits.
Jesus said, “I have prayed for you!” not, “I will pray!” Jesus probably had spent many hours with His Father talking about Peter—how He loved him, how needed he was in the Kingdom, how He valued him as a friend.
Lord, give all of us that kind of love! That way, when we see someone compromising or heading for trouble or disaster, we will love them enough to warn them as firmly as Jesus did Peter. Then we will be able to say, “I’m praying for you!” We need to say it in love, not in an accusing way.
Take those people to God’s throne; plead for them to come through their trials with their faith intact. Jesus did not lecture Peter. Rather, Jesus said simply, “I’ve prayed for you.”
“I have prayed for you.” In the Greek, you is plural, meaning “all of you.” Jesus was speaking not only to Peter but to all the disciples—and to us today. “I pray for them; I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. . . . Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me. . . . I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (John 17:9, 11, 15).
No matter what you’re going through, no matter what lies ahead of you, if you have a heart full of love for Jesus, He is praying for you.
Jesus sees both the good and the bad in Peter and concludes, “This man is worth saving! Satan desires him, but I desire him all the more.” Peter truly loved the Lord and the Lord truly loved Peter even though He knew his personality traits.
Jesus said, “I have prayed for you!” not, “I will pray!” Jesus probably had spent many hours with His Father talking about Peter—how He loved him, how needed he was in the Kingdom, how He valued him as a friend.
Lord, give all of us that kind of love! That way, when we see someone compromising or heading for trouble or disaster, we will love them enough to warn them as firmly as Jesus did Peter. Then we will be able to say, “I’m praying for you!” We need to say it in love, not in an accusing way.
Take those people to God’s throne; plead for them to come through their trials with their faith intact. Jesus did not lecture Peter. Rather, Jesus said simply, “I’ve prayed for you.”
“I have prayed for you.” In the Greek, you is plural, meaning “all of you.” Jesus was speaking not only to Peter but to all the disciples—and to us today. “I pray for them; I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. . . . Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me. . . . I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (John 17:9, 11, 15).
No matter what you’re going through, no matter what lies ahead of you, if you have a heart full of love for Jesus, He is praying for you.