Here is an excerpt from "Our Lord Prays for His Own" by Marcus Rainsford that I thought was encouraging. He is talking about the prayer of Jesus recorded in John 17.
Our Lord, as we have said before, is in this prayer committing His people to His Father's care. As the High Priest appeared before God on the day of atonement with the names of the tribes on his shoulders and on his heart, so Christ presents Himself before His Father. It is the voice of "the only begotten Son of God" that speaks. It is the voice of the Lamb of God even now on His way to the altar of sacrifice, and He thus prays, "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name".
They are wonderful words; they breathe nothing but love, and grace, and truth, and tenderness. He brings no charge against them, He finds no fault with them, He hints at no deficiency; and yet we know they had many faults, many deficiencies; the disciples were not angels, but men. Hitherto they had not been great saints, but on the contrary very feeble ones, not persons of high attainments, but "slow of heart to believe," and ready to halt; not very eminent for any grace, and at times full of failure and of corruption; but the Lord takes no notice of this in all His prayer. Our Lord Jesus Christ is a great Savior, and a divine Mediator; He is full of grace and truth and love; He is exactly suited to the need of His people, whether as regards their sins, their corruptions, their miseries, or their temptations' and the whole of His dealings with them have been, are, an ever will be one grand display of abundant mercy; this prayer, expressing His thoughts, revealing His purposes, uttering His will and His anxieties concerning them, are sufficient evidence of this.
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