Jesus Prays for Us

Worship Wednesday with Pastor Edith
February 11, 2026
John 17:20-26

It’s been a busy, but productive day, though as you can see by the time of day I am posting this, there is still so much more I want to do. I have to remind myself that I am not as young and efficient as I used to be, so taking time to stop, worship, pray is exactly the right thing to do. I hope you will find today’s meditation helpful even as the sun is starting to set.

My journal scripture, which is our text for today, comes from a prayer that Jesus prayed first for his disciples then, and closing with a prayer for his disciples in the future. In context: Jesus had been teaching and encouraging the chosen 12 as he prepares to bring them to the Garden of Gethsemane and then he will be arrested and eventually sentenced to crucifixion.

Jesus prays; “My prayer is not for them alone, I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you…I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to compete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me…I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them”.

My study bible has this to say; “’I in them and you in me’. The mutual indwelling of the Father in the Son and the Son in the church is also the means to unity, the ultimate expression of God’s love” (“Halley’s Study Bible”- 2020 edition, pg.1349). Soon we will celebrate Valentine’s Day, and for me a day to celebrate the fact that “we love, because God first loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice or our sins” (1 John 4:10). What wondrous love is this! The best way to experience authentic love, is to begin and grow in a relationship with God. To understand that God loved us so much that he sent his one and only son, God himself in the flesh (Immanuel) to take our sins to a brutal death on a cross, which then would result in his resurrection and ascension back to heaven; all to declare God’s love and invitation for all to seek Him and love Him, to be mindful of His return to make all things new again.

I’m singing as I close the meditation for today; “What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul. What wondrous love is this, O my soul. What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul, to bear the dreadful curse for my soul”.

AMEN and Pray and Sing On!