Weekly Devotional: September 16, 2026

DEVOTIONAL
by Major Kelly English
Corps Officer of Fairfax County, VA

GOD’S WORD
John 17:6

DEVOTIONAL
“Yeah! Jesus Is Praying For Us”

FRAGILE FAITH

John 17 has always fascinated me for how intimate the prayer he prays for you and me is. It's not some prayer that is distant or overly formal. In fact, it is relational. It's as if, as he's praying, he is seeing all of us in his mind. Prayer is filled with love. It's filled with a vision for unity. It's filled with concern, and all of these stretch from the moment he's praying to now.

We're invited, in John 17:6, to a moment just before his crucifixion. It is an intimate moment. It's a moment that is difficult to find words for because of its intensity. In the prayer, He begins acknowledging that He has revealed the Father to his disciples.

Now, let's be real here. The disciples weren't perfect. They misunderstood Him. They got into some pretty heavy arguments, and in just a few hours they would be running for fear of their lives. Yet, knowing this, Jesus speaks of all of His disciples. These are those who have genuinely received God's Word and beliefs. Faith isn't measured by flawless performance. Thank God for that, but it's measured by trust in the one who calls us. Even fragile faith is precious, so very precious to God.

SUSTAINED BY GOD’S POWER

He prays for their protection. I notice that He doesn't pray for their removal. He doesn't do that. Instead, He prays that they are preserved within it. He says, "I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one." There's a real difference. We would love to simply leave here, wouldn't we?

We'd love to come into a relationship with Him, and then in the blink of an eye, we are transformed and taken away. That's not what He wants. He wants us to show that the kingdom is here. He wants us to raise the banner of heaven and drive deeply into the earth the scepter of the kingdom of God.

He wants us to show the world that following Him doesn't mean that we escape difficulty or tension. What it means is that, while it's all happening, we live faithfully in the midst of it, and then the world can see what it looks like to be sustained by God's power.

THESE THINGS SHAPE US

Listen, we're sent into real environments, workplaces, and families and communities, and frankly we are always going to have challenges that are unavoidable. Yet in all of this, because of our relationship with Him, we're not left defenseless. Amen! And it is Jesus himself who is interceding for us.

Jesus also acknowledges this; He says, “They are not of this world, even as I am not of it." What a statement. It highlights that our primary allegiance is not to cultural trends, political systems, or social expectations. Our primary allegiance is to the kingdom of God. We live here, but our shaping is from a higher source. We have a different set of values. It’s truth, humility, love, and holiness: these are the things that shape us.

GOD FOCUSES ON YOU AND ME

Jesus then speaks a line that, in my own personal walk, has always been in front of me. He says, "Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth." To know that Jesus prayed that we would be set apart by the truth. To know that we have this Word, and that every time we spend time there, we are being set apart and made holy as we live this relationship out.

I believe he's doing this for a reason, and the reason is that he's sending all of us back into the world, just like the Father sent him into the world. We're supposed to be grounded in truth, grounded in humility, grounded in love, so that this world will see that there really is something powerful about our relationship with the living God. Jesus prays that for us. In his prayer, He expands beyond his disciples, and He focuses on you and me.

GOD’S NATURE

I believe this prayer is so powerful. To pray for people who have not even entered this world's fear before. I was not even born; Jesus prayed for me, and what does he pray for? He prays that we would all be one. So that the world may believe in Him, so that the world may see what true eternal power and love are. So that the world will see what it is to love across differences and to forgive offenses, to pursue reconciliation. The world needs to see what God's nature looks like in action.

I love knowing that as Jesus intercedes for us today, we're held in God's care even now. It means we can pursue truth seriously. As we allow the Word of God to shape our thoughts and actions, people will see that we are not from this world and that we carry this eternal power within us. It means that we can prioritize unity not by ignoring differences, but by grounding ourselves in love, in a love that's deeper than those differences. Amen!

Above all other things, he reminds me that I'm included in something greater than me: a relationship, a mission, and a love that was in place well before I got here. It was already in action, and it will continue long after. Yeah, Jesus is praying for us, drawing us closer every day. God bless.