March 22 Evening Devotional | Opposing Prayers | Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Evening, March 22 | “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am.” —John 17:24 (NASB)

This Morning's Scripture Reading: John 17:22-26 (NASB)

“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
“O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.””

Devotional Video Transcript:

O death! Why do you touch the tree beneath whose spreading branches weariness finds rest? Why do you snatch away the excellent of the earth, in whom is all our delight? If you must use your axe, use it upon the trees which yield no fruit; you might be thanked then. But why will you fell the goodly cedars of Lebanon? O stay your axe, and spare the righteous.

But no, it must not be; death smites the goodliest of our friends; the most generous, the most prayerful, the most holy, the most devoted must die. And why? It is through Jesus’ prevailing prayer — “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am.”

It is that which bears them on eagle’s wings to heaven. Every time a believer mounts from this earth to paradise, it is an answer to Christ’s prayer. A good old divine remarks, “Many times Jesus and his people pull against one another in prayer. You bend your knee in prayer and say ‘Father, I desire that Your saints be with me where I am’; Christ says, ‘Father, I desire that they also, whom you hast given me, be with me where I am.’ ”

Thus the disciple is at cross-purposes with his Lord. The soul cannot be in both places: the beloved one cannot be with Christ and with you too. Now, which pleader shall win the day? If you had your choice; if the King should step from his throne, and say, “Here are two supplicants praying in opposition to one another, which shall be answered?” Oh, I am sure, though it were agony, you would jump to your feet, and say, “Jesus, not my will, but yours be done.” You would give up your prayer for your loved one’s life, if you could realize the thoughts that Christ is praying in the opposite direction — “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am.”

Lord, you shall have them. By faith we let them go.

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Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture quotations are from the King James Version.
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB (New American Standard Bible) Copyright 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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