Good Friday to you. :)
It's been a while since I wrote, but tonight I have something on my heart that I feel I must share.
I recently started a junior high "home group" with a couple other youth leaders at my church. We started last week, and will meet once a week with middle school girls to read the Bible, pray, serve, and have fun together. I'm excited to be a part of it, and am already seeing God at work in all of our lives!
This week as we were preparing for home group, we knew we wanted to talk about Easter, but also knew that we wanted to come at it with a fresh perspective for the girls. I think sometimes we hear a certain message so many times that we forget its value, even if, like Easter, the purpose of the message is to be reminded of its worth.
To put it simply, we become too familiar and comfortable with the grandeur of Jesus' death and resurrection.
So I began to pray and read through my Bible, looking for ways to open my heart and the hearts of the home group girls in preparation for this Easter weekend. Before long I came across one of my favorite passages in Scripture, John 17.
In this chapter, if you don't already know, Jesus prays for His followers. There are two reasons I find this passage so moving. First 0f all, we get to listen in on God praying to God for us. My mind honestly can't wrap around that idea. There's clearly something huge going on in the heart of God here. Secondly, this prayer is spoken in the garden of Gethsemane, shortly before Jesus is arrested. How much more precious can these words become?
I chose to read in the Message translation, simply because (again) I sometimes start to skim over words when I've read them too many times. Because it's so different from the NIV translation, the Message forces me to take a closer look at certain words/verses/chapters in the Bible. And as I read John 17 this way, I began to catch a deeper appreciation for what Jesus was saying as He prayed in that garden for me.
So I sat down at my computer, typed up the entire chapter, and began switching things around a little bit. Wherever Jesus said "they" (referring to us as His followers), I put in "you." Wherever He said "you" (speaking to His Father), I put in "God," or "He." Then I shortened the piece down a bit, and eventually ended up with a letter composed of the words Jesus prayed to God in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Looking at John 17 in this new and different way helped give me a new perspective on it, and I think everyone in our home group walked away with a greater appreciation for who Jesus is and what He really did for us on the cross after reading and discussing it. I wanted to share the letter with you, and hope that it prepares you in some way for this Easter weekend.
Be encouraged by this letter. He prays for us.
To you, my child, my dearest one ~
I pray for you.
I’m not praying for the God-rejecting world
But for you, whom God gave me…
For you are His by right.
Everything mine is God’s, and His mine,
And my life is on display in you.
For I’m no longer visible in the world;
Yet you continue in the world
While I am with Him.
~
Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life
That you gave as a gift through me,
So they can be of one heart and mind
As we are one heart and mind…
~
My child, I am saying these things for you to read
So you can experience
My joy completed in you.
I gave you God’s word;
The godless world will hate you because of it,
Because you don’t join the world’s ways,
Just as I didn’t join the world’s ways.
I’m not asking that God take you out of the world
But that He guard you from the Evil One.
You are no more defined by the world
Than I am defined by the world.
~
Father, make them holy – consecrated – with the truth;
Your word is consecrating truth.
In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world,
I give them a mission in the world.
~
Child, I consecrated myself for your sake
So you’ll be truth-consecrated in your mission.
I’m praying not only for you
But also for those who will believe in me
Because of you and your witness about me.
The goal is for all of you to become one heart and mind –
Just as my Father is in me and I in Him,
So you might be of one heart and mind with us.
Then the world might believe that God, in fact, sent me.
The same glory He gave me, I give you,
So you’ll be as unified and together as we are –
I in you and God in me.
Then you’ll be mature in this oneness,
And give the godless world evidence
That God sent me and loved you
In the same way He loved me.
~
Father, I want those you gave me
To be with me, right where I am,
So they can see my glory, the splendor you gave me,
Having loved me
Long before there ever was a world.
~Jesus
Reading this, I am overwhelmed by the nearness of my God. His love is so much greater than I will ever comprehend. As I went through this incredible chapter, verses started popping into my head, and after some searching, I found the references for most of them. I put them here for you to look up should you get the chance. They add depth and richness to the letter, which is, after all, not technical Scripture. God's direct Word is always best.
So here they are:
Hebrews 4:14-16
Galatians 4:4-7
2 Corinthians 2:15-16
Psalm 68:3
Ephesians 3:16-19
Acts 1:8, 2:17
John 13:34-35
As I close, I pray that this weekend you are reminded of Jesus' intense love for you. He thought of you specifically as He prayed in that garden for you, as He received the thirty-nine lashes, and as He hung on that cross. You were worth it all.
