Before Jesus faces the agony of the cross and being forsaken of His Father, He prays for you. His high priestly prayer in John 17 reflects His priorities and desire for you:

20 “I do not ask for these only,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

21 that they may all be one,
just as you, Father, are in me,
and I in you, that they also may be in us,

so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

22 The glory that you have given me
I have given to them,

that they may be one even as we are one,

23 I in them and you in me,
that they may become perfectly one,

so that the world may know that you sent me
and loved them even as you loved me.

24 Father, I desire that they also,
whom you have given me, may be with me where I am,

to see my glory that you have given me
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25 O righteous Father,
even though the world does not know you,
I know you, and these know that you have sent me.

26 I made known to them your name,
and I will continue to make it known,

that the love with which you have loved me
may be in them, and I in them.”

• Christ will not stop praying this prayer for you until you are safely in his arms.

This prayer, which he made on earth,
is the copy and pattern of his prayer in heaven.
What a comfort is this; when Satan is tempting,
Christ is praying! This works for our good.
– Thomas Watson

Like Moses, let us pray not only to see and experience Jesus’ glory in the future, but to also to behold His beauty and greatness now. For God’s glory is the outward radiance of the intrinsic beauty and greatness of his manifold perfections.
– John Piper

• Take a moment to pray through this statement by Robert M. M’Cheyne, a Scottish minister during the early 1800s. He preached on John 17:24 and said these striking words:

“In truth, Christ cannot lack you.
You are his crown.
Heaven would be no heaven to him,
if you were not there.”

• Here are several other Scriptural truths to ignite your heart:

You are his crown of beauty (Isaiah 62:3).
You are the apple of his eye (Deuteronomy 32:10),
his treasured possession (Exodus 19:5),
his portion (Deut. 32:9), and his bride (Rev. 21:9).
– Andrew Bonar, Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne
(Carlisle, Pa.: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1987), 470.