Jesus Prays for You

Did you know, Jesus prays for you? That thought or concept was of great comfort to me when I made the decision to quit my job. Before making the decision, I spent quite a bit of time in scripture and prayer, seeking some of God’s truth. I was struggling with work, feeling depressed and uninterested. I devoted time to deep prayer and investigating scripture. In those moments, I believe God will speak to us, and I found some comforting perspective that lead me to my decision.

The Growth Strategy

In December of 2016, I was promoted to the position of Growth Engineer. It was an exciting transition because it aligned with where I wanted my career to head. I spent 2017 trying to fully embrace the role while defining what growth meant, since the role was completely new to the company. With the growth strategy in its infancy, naturally there was some conflict with the well established operating flow of the product team. When 2018 rolled around, I decided to undertake a retrospective look at the past year to develop better visibility into how to improve the growth team and strategy in 2018.

My retrospective investigation was supported by my boss, so when I sent my findings to him, I expected some critical feedback and to eventually move forward with the fresh year on a high note of its perspective. I didn’t hear anything. For a few months, I waited for a response. I patiently sent reminders, which were acknowledged. We completed the first quarter of 2018 enduring the same issues and inefficiencies as 2017. From my eyes, it seemed growth was stifled.

Eventually, my boss reviewed my findings. Instead of moving forward with the year utilizing its perspective, my boss informed me things were changing. I wasn’t being demoted. If I did a terrible job in 2017 and was being disciplined accordingly, I wasn’t told that. Instead, my identity as the growth engineer was stripped away and I was back doing some pretty menial web development work.

To say the least, I didn’t really understand what was happening. Prior to becoming the growth engineer, I had spent 4 years on the team, and was starting to feel greatly under utilized and under appreciated. So when I was given the new role, it was a great feeling, and a reason to stick around. When it was seemingly taken away, I was understandably confused, depressed, and started looking for new options. It started to show in my work and my attitude. I started to feel like a failure, and with my growing lack of productivity, I started to become stressed.

With all of it mounting upon me, I felt my faith starting to become threatened. It was at that time that I started to seek God. Over the past year, not only had my career grown, but so had my faith. I was not alone in feeling that in my church, things were moving and God’s hand was building something. My situation was no secret to my friends and family. A friend of mine suggested I listen to a message from Mosaic LA on the story of Jesus walking on water.

The Boat

The Mosaic message had some good perspective. Despite that, I felt there was some missed opportunity to incorporate more of scripture. Growing up in christian schools, memorizing a bible verse nearly every week, scripture has stuck with me, but really only its truth. The memory of verses come to mind as I hear the truth of them retold, but their location and the exact words don’t. So I decided to do some digging and connect some of that truth for myself and I sought more inspiration. I went to my church of many years prior, Maranatha Chapel, where I found one video on the story of Jesus walking on water.

Prior to the miracle of Jesus walking on water, Jesus had just fed 5,000 people and His popularity was at a high place. It says, that “when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.” (John 6:15). The plan, all along, was for Jesus to be king, but he needed to go through the cross in order for that to happen. So when the option to skip the cross presented itself, there was likely some temptation there to avoid the fear and pain and to take the safer option. So what is Jesus’s reaction? He goes to be alone on the mountain. In the gospels of Matthew and Mark, it says he went there to pray. The greatest resource to Jesus in a time of testing is ours also: prayer.

We know from the gospel of Mark that before going up the mountain, Jesus tells the disciples to cross the sea in the boat. From the disciples perspective, they probably also sensed that Jesus had king-like popularity, and were probably excited and could feel this new Jesus kingdom close at hand. When we’re following Jesus, I think there are plenty of moments like this. There are high points where we’re swallowed up in the excitement of Jesus and His kingdom and we could feel maybe that it’s within our grasp. But Jesus went through the cross for our sake, and He calls us to things that are incomparable to His sacrifice, but will be nonetheless difficult. He calls us to cross a sea when a storm rises.

And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”

Luke 21:31-32 NKJV

I imagine Jesus prayed for many things up on that mountain. One thing I know though, is that he prayed for the disciples. He prayed for each and every one of them. Later, Jesus predicts Peter’s denial of ever knowing Him. The recount in the gospel of Luke, quoted above, says Jesus prayed for Peter. While Peter’s denial of Christ was a pivotal trial for him, it wasn’t unlike other storms that came into his life, or our lives for that matter. Up on that mountain, I believe Jesus prayed for Peter then also.

I believe the English translation of Luke 21:31-32 misses a powerful takeaway. In English, we rely on context for the meaning of the word “you.” The word could have both a plural and singular meaning. In Greek, there is a clear distinction between a plural and singular “you.” In the Greek of the passage, when Jesus says, “Satan has asked for you,” He is actually using a plural “you.” In English, we do have an informal plural form of “you.” Here is the passage altered with that to convey the difference:

And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for y’all, that he may sift y’all as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”

Luke 21:31-32 NKJV (altered)

Jesus is saying that Satan has asked for all of the disciples, not just Peter, and by extension I believe Satan has asked for all who follow Him. Satan’s goal has always been to separate us from our faith. Like in the story of Job, Satan wanted to show that Job would separate himself from God if the things in Job’s life would sour. Job’s faith was his own, and he stuck by it despite the difficulty.

Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:34-39 NKJV

The personal essence of that interaction in Luke is something I never really felt until I was seeking Him in my decision to quit. How comforting it is to know Jesus is praying for you personally. When He has already done so much for us, He is praying for you and me “at the right hand of God,” making “intercession” for both you and me. It shows prayer’s true power. Afterwards, when our will to follow him in faith is strengthened and we get out of the boat to return to him, we’re demonstrating faith and Jesus’ will for our lives; to return to him endlessly despite the weather. Lastly, we can’t forget that when that’s done, Jesus has said we will strengthen our brethren.

Peter getting out of the safety of the boat, to join Jesus walking on water, must have seemed absolutely crazy to the other disciples in the boat. On the other hand, when Peter started to make his way out to Jesus, how genuinely powerful it must have been to witness that act of faith. I can only imagine how much that strengthened their faith. Even so, Peter almost drowned! It wasn’t a perfect attempt by Peter, because nothing we do ever is. Yet, here I am, reading about this story, feeling absolutely strengthened that Jesus prays for me, that there are times when I will feel I’m stuck in a boat in a storm, but I can always return to Him and make it through.

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1-2 NKJV

I now recognize more than ever that my faith is what will what will endure if I put my focus on Christ, the “author and finisher” of my faith. I did decide to quit my job, a weight that I felt was preventing me from growing my faith, or perhaps just my comfy boat. I stepped in faith into a period of my life where many of my hopes, dreams, and goals were erased to make room for something God wanted for my life. It’s been a few months since then, and I can say it hasn’t been easy still, but I know that He is provisioning something for me. I know that because He already has.

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For,
‘In just a little while,
he who is coming will come
and will not delay.’
And,
‘But my righteous one will live by faith.
And I take no pleasure
in the one who shrinks back.’
But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

Hebrews 10:35-38 NIV

Written by Blaine Jester