Words from the Rock
Now I’m returning to you. I’m saying these things in the world’s hearing so my people can experience my joy completed in them.
John 17:13 Message
Jesus is talking to his Father about his friends and all the people who will follow him in the centuries to come—including you. Knowing his earthly time is nearly over, Jesus prays to his Father about what’s to come. What will happen to his friends when he’s gone? Although Jesus knows he’s about to be killed, he’s not even thinking about that. His primary concern is for his followers.
On a night when he knows that his earthly life is pretty much over, that he won’t get to be with his friends anymore, that he won’t get to heal and teach and do miracles, and that he is about to endure an excruciating form of death . . . he asks his Father to make sure his followers experience his joy.
Joy? On a dark, dismal night, when his buddies are fast asleep, while he is alone and suffering and in deep spiritual anguish, Jesus asks God to make sure his friends have joy? Yes. He’s not only asking God to give them joy, he’s asking God to complete his joy within them—in other words, to finish the work Jesus began.
He is entrusting his loved ones into his Father’s hands because he knows that only God can finish this impossible mission. Only God can bring joy after what will soon become the darkest day in the history of the world. Jesus’s faith in his Father convinces him that this is possible. Even now, Jesus knows that if his work is complete and full in you, it is because his Father has linked your life to his—which results in real joy.
My Prayer
Dear God,
Please complete Jesus’s work in me so his joy will be part of my life. When I feel my joy is lacking, remind me to come to you.
Amen.
Final Word
Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.
Romans 5:2 NLT
Stone for the Journey
Jesus’s joy in me means God is at work.