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This Week’s Scripture & Reflection: Romans 8:34
Have you ever told someone that you were going to pray for them and forgot to do it? Nowadays when it seems as if people are busier more than ever, following up on an important and serious commitment such as praying for someone can be easily neglected! Thank God for Jesus Himself who, as Hebrews 7:25 profoundly declares, lives to make intercession for His people!
In Romans 8, the apostle Paul reminds us that Jesus died to pay the penalty of our sins on the cross, was raised from the dead through the glory and power of the Father (cf. Romans 6:4), and following a period of 40 days upon the Earth to clearly show evidence of His resurrection, He ascended into Heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father. However, Jesus does more than just sit on His rightful throne: He actively and continuously intercedes on behalf of the saints and pleads our case to the Father!
Having lived upon the Earth while robed in human flesh, Jesus knows from experience the pain of suffering and the lure of temptation! As a result, He has become our faithful High Priest who not only understands and sympathizes with our weaknesses but who also advocates for us to the Father during times of suffering and temptation! When we forget to pray for others and even ourselves, Jesus is always praying for us! When the weight of the trial we are enduring weighs down on us, Jesus entreats the Father in our favor so that we may endure and not falter!
Although we should not relax from consistent and devoted prayer simply because Jesus lives to intercede for us, we can rest in the fact that the Son of the Living God covers us in prayer! What a great and inexplicable love He must have towards the saints to not only die to atone for their sins, but to continue to devote Himself to them through the ministry of intercession!