The High Priestly Prayer

The High Priestly Prayer

These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.

John 17:1

Over the past little while we have been considering the Lord’s Prayer. That was Christ’s instruction to His people as to what to pray and how to pray. Because we considered it, we have thus laid the groundwork for a larger discussion of prayer. If we want to learn more of prayer ourselves, we can do no better than to look to Christ, to examine His praying. From that, we can derive an astronomical number of useful lessons. As we look at the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John, we have a detailed example of Christ’s praying. As we take an initial overview, several things present themselves. We want to consider the context of this ‘High Priestly Prayer.’ Christ prayed this prayer on the night before He went to the cross. He prayed this prayer, evidently, within the hearing of His disciples. This was the hour for Him to leave lasting impressions with them. This was His opportunity to open His heart and to bare His soul. We want also to meditate upon the contents of the prayer. Here we find Christ praying for the things which He counts important. Beyond that, we want to consider the value of the prayer for us. From how Christ prays, and what he prays, we can learn how and what to pray ourselves. This makes the High Priestly Prayer an excellent avenue of study for us, that by it we may learn to pray from the Master.

Our Gracious, Compassionate Savior,
we praise You that You powerfully intercede for us.
We rejoice that Your intercession will be effectual,
and that by it, You will accomplish all Your Will for us and in us.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning