Reflection
John 17:10-20
10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 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. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. 20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
Discussion
That is a prayer of Jesus for you. Knowing He will return to the Father for a time, He prays for His disciples and all who will come after them. He knows the struggle we will face in this world. The Christian life is promised to be anything but easy.
Maybe I see it more now, but it seems like every angle of life promises to fulfill us with things other than God. Whether it is things to buy, places to go, or popularity to acquire. We are targeted constantly with messages of who we are supposed to be – in everything except for God. In the beginning we were made in the image of God and at the end of this world we will be remade into perfect beings like Him again.
Connection
How can your life be focused on living for Christ instead of the world?
Why is living for Christ so hard for even His own people?
How can your life lived for Christ be a beacon of hope for the lost world around you?
Expansion
Creation
The Triune God alone sovereignly created our universe in 6 literal, 24-hour days. Each step of His creative work was complete and perfect with no allowance for the evolution of species or other processes of creation. In His work, God created man and woman as male and female, and gave them specific roles in creation. Following creation, God sat in rule over all things where He remains today as the sole sustainer of His creation.
Genesis 1:1, Genesis 1:26-27, Genesis 5:1-2, Genesis 6:7, Genesis 9:6, Nehemiah 9:6, Acts 14:15, Acts 17:24, Isaiah 44:24, Jeremiah 32:17, Hebrews 1:10, Revelation 4:11, John 1:3, Colossians 1:16