A Devotion from John Flavel

“I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.” 
-John 17:11

Look on dying Jesus, see how his care and love to his people flamed out when the time of his departure was at hand. As we remember our relations every day and lay up prayers for them in the time of our health, so it becomes us to imitate Christ in our earnestness with God for them when we die. Though we die, our prayers do not die with us; they outlive us, and those we leave behind may reap the benefit of them when we are turned to dust.

I must profess that I have a high value for this mercy and bless the Lord who gave me a tender father who often poured out his soul to God for me. This stock of prayers and blessings left by him before the Lord I esteem above the fairest inheritance on earth. It is no small mercy to have thousands of prayers lying before the Lord, filed up in heaven for us. Surely our love should not grow cold when our breath does. Oh, that we would remember this duty in our lives and, if God give opportunity, fully discharge it when we die, considering, as Christ did, we will be no more in this world, but they are, in the midst of a defiled world—it is the last office of love that we will ever do for them.

Here we may see what high esteem and value Christ has of believers; this was the treasure that he could not quit, he could not die till he had secured it in a safe hand. “I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name.”

Surely believers are dear to Jesus Christ—and good reason, for he has paid dear for them. Let his last farewell speak for him, how he prized them. What is much on our hearts when we die is dear to us indeed. How dear should Jesus Christ be to us! Were we first and last upon his heart? Did he mind us, did he pray for us, did he so wrestle with God about us when the sorrows of death surrounded him? How much are we committed not only to love him and esteem him while we live, but to be in pangs of love for him when we feel the pangs of death upon us! The very last whisper of our departing souls should be this, Blessed be God for Jesus Christ.