Jesus is praying for us as we suffer

Abba Father, what a comfort to know that Jesus is praying for me and every one of His beloved followers, as we suffer earthly trials. Along with Your permanent sealing and protection of a true believer by Your indwelling Holy Spirit,¹ this is how we can cling to Your promised and assured end.  

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! 
O what a foretaste of glory divine! 
Heir of salvation, purchase of God, 
born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.

(“Blessed Assurance,” Crosby, F., 1873)

God, You are the original and continual source.² Jesus Himself is the author and perfecter of our faith! He also intercedes for us according to Your perfect will and plan for our life.³

So, if we ask anything according to Your will, we can know that You hear us and that we have these requests.⁴

He lives! he lives! and sits above,

For ever interceding there;

Who shall divide us from his love,

Or what shall tempt us to despair?

(“The Triumph of Faith,” Watts, I., p.d.)

Jesus is praying according to Your will

Oh Lord, this ongoing suffering is bringing me to pray like my beloved Savior:

Shall persecution, or distress,

Famine, or sword, or nakedness?

He that has loved us bears us through,

And makes us more than conquerors, too.

Jesus is praying for our sanctification as we suffer

We feel the battles daily. In this war with the world,⁵ our fleshly desires and the remnants of our sin nature,⁶ and the enemy Satan,⁷ it’s simply not our desire to suffer. It hurts, and I know we are all so wearied in this race of endurance.⁸

But we can rest assured that You’re bringing about Your will for our life, all the way home to You. You’ve given us Your Word as Your answer to our desperate prayers for help, more and more growing us in trusting Your promises, following Your loving instructions to us, and enduring this suffering with persevering faith.

Faith has an overcoming power;

It triumphs in the dying hour.

Christ is our life, our joy, our hope,

Nor can we sink with such a prop.

Jesus is praying according to Your promises to us

How do we know it’s possible? On the hardest days? Because Jesus promised! And He is praying for us! What a comfort!

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (Jn. 14:16-17 ESV, emphasis added). 

Not all that men on earth can do,

Nor powers on high, nor powers below,

Shall cause his mercy to remove,

Or wean our hearts from Christ our love.

“I am praying…for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (Jn. 17:9, 14-15 ESV).

In His omniscient understanding of our deepest desires, our emotions, and thoughts, our beloved Jesus is praying for us according to Your will! It’s Your will to sanctify us in the truth of Your Word. To make us more holy. More obedient to You. More like Jesus. Through this suffering…

Help us to cling to Your promises as we suffer, our faithful God and Father

I’m so comforted that, before we even come to You in prayer, You promise to answer and hear us⁹ and to pour Your water into our thirsty and dry hearts by Your Spirit.¹⁰

You promise that all of Jesus’ sheep hear His voice, that He knows them, and they follow Him.¹¹ You promise to lead and guide us, and to turn the darkness into light and the rough places into level ground.¹² You promise to help us “be strong and courageous,” replacing fear or dismay, because “the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”¹³ 

So, even if this suffering lingers because it’s not Your will for it to leave us today, we can cling to Your sure and true promises, as You continue to set us apart from this fallen world. How we praise You for bringing us to Him. Thank You for every promise of Your Word, all fulfilled in our interceding-for-us Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In His magnificent name, amen.

This is my story, this is my song, 
praising my Savior all the day long!

Material adapted from Praying God’s Promises Into Suffering: A Devotional Bible Study Prayer Journal, Lauri A. Hogle, © 2023

A playlist gift to sing God’s promises into our suffering, praising our Savior all the day long

I adapted this former prayer on the day after yet another sudden hospitalization, then posted it on the day after yet another emergency visit. It’s simply the nature of chronic illness in this fallen world. Has it been 35 years of this tiring suffering? Yes. Jesus interceding for me? Absolutely. Strengthening and sanctifying me? Yes. He’s doing it with both of us!

His Word’s sung promises have filled my thoughts in every scary emergency, all bringing such comfort. I’ve made the playlist of His promises to encourage me (and you) in our ongoing sufferings. Sister in Christ, if you’d be strengthened by my Scripturally-saturated worship music playlists, sign up here, and they will come to your email with love and prayers from one who understands how hard this is for you.

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For other resources of the ministry of Singing Christ’s Hope, click images:

1. Ephesians 1:13-14, 4:30 ↩︎
2. Hebrews 12:2 ↩︎
3. Romans 8:26-27, 33-34 ↩︎
4. John 14:14; 1 John 5:13-14 ↩︎
5. John 15:19; Revelation 17:4 ↩︎
6. Romans 8:7; Galatians 5:17 ↩︎
7. Ephesians 6:12; 1 Peter 5:8 ↩︎
8. Hebrews 12:1 ↩︎
9. Isaiah 65:24 ↩︎
10. Isaiah 44:3; John 4:14 ↩︎
11. John 10:27 ↩︎
12. Isaiah 42:16 ↩︎
13. Joshua 1:9 ↩︎