My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. John 17:15
“Christ’s presence and employment in heaven lays a strong engagement on God to bring His whole force and power into the field upon all occasions for His saints’ defense. One special end of His journey to heaven, and abode there, is that He might, as the saints’ solicitor, be ever interceding for such supplies and succors of His Father as their exigencies call for; and the more to assure us of the same before He went, He did, as it were, tell us what heads He meant to go upon His intercession when He should come there; one of which was this, that His Father should keep his children while they were to stay in the world from the evil thereof. Neither doth Christ take upon Him this work of His own head, but hath the same appointment of His Father for what He now prays in heaven, as He did for what He suffered on earth.”
William Gurnall (1617-1679) famous Puritan clergyman known for the classic work, “The Christian in Complete Armour” (page 18) which is his treatise on the saints’ war against the devil (Ephesians 6:10-20).
As we focus on the work of Christ for us this week, we should see it not as an end but a beginning. He did not suffer and stop. He serves as our solicitor to this day.
He never ceases to intercede to the Father for whatever supplies and succors we need. That ranges from provision to protection. Pause to thank Him for that as we enter Holy Week.
His desire for us to live lives of rich Christian generosity find roots in His unending intercession for us. Let this give confidence to the living out of our faith.