Our Savior's Prayers

I have prayed for you. – Luke 22:32

From the Pen of Charles Spurgeon:

What an encouragement to know of our Redeemer’s never-ceasing intercession for us! When we pray, He pleads our case, and even when we are not praying, He is advocating our cause and through His supplications He shields us from unseen dangers. Notice the words of comfort spoken to Peter:

Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But... – Luke 22:31-32

But what? “But go and pray for yourself ”? Certainly that would be good advice, yet that is not what we read. Nor does Jesus say, “But I will keep you alert, and thus you will be spared.” Of course, that would have been a great blessing. What Jesus did say was:

But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. – Luke 22:32

Actually, we know very little of how much we owe to our Savior’s prayers. But once we reach the mountaintops of heaven and look back on the paths the Lord our God has led us, oh, how we will praise Him — He who before His Father’s eternal throne thwarted the mischief Satan was doing on earth! Oh, how we will thank Him for never keeping His peace, but instead, day and night, pointing to the wounds in His hands and carrying our names on His breastplate! (See Exodus 28:29.)

Even before Satan had begun to tempt us, Jesus obstructed our enemy’s way and entered a plea in heaven.

Mercy outran malice!

Notice that although He told Peter,

Satan demanded to have you. – Luke 22:31

Jesus restrained Satan’s every desire, nipping them in the bud. He did so, not by saying, “But I have desired to pray for you,” but by saying, “ ‘I have prayed for you’; I have already done it; I have gone to court and entered a counterclaim even before an accusation has been made.”

O Jesus, what a comfort to know You have pleaded our cause against our unseen enemies, countermined their land mines, and unmasked their ambushes. Your intercession on my behalf fills me with joy, gratitude, hope, and confidence.

From the Pen of Jim Reimann:

We tend to forget the numerous legal terms used in the Scriptures, such as witness and testify. Spurgeon makes the point that Jesus entered God’s “court and entered a counterclaim” on our behalf. We need to remember as well that God is a God of justice and that what He does is done legally and in order. With the “legal-ness” of our God in mind, consider the following passages:

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. – 1 John 2:1

A number of other translations say, “We have an advocate with the Father.” The underlying meaning in the Greek is that Jesus is our defense attorney, which brings to mind the verse where He refers to the Holy Spirit as “the Counselor” (John 14:26), another term for advocate or attorney.

Thus, when Satan comes accusing us of sin, our defense Attorney in heaven “speaks to the Father in our defense,” saying, in essence, “Don’t look at his sin, look at My cross where I paid the price for his sin.” After all,

[Jesus] is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. – 1 John 2:2

Excerpted with permission from Evening by Evening: The Devotions of Charles Spurgeon by Jim Reimann, copyright Zondervan.

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