Begin with 2 minutes of silence and stillness before God.

On the heels of the mic drop statement in John 16:34, Jesus begins to pray. With the four different gospels found in scripture, there’s usually more than one account of the events of the life of Jesus. However, John’s gospel is the only one that contains this prayer. John’s gospel is aimed at showing the deity of Jesus which shows up clearly in verse 5, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” We know this is exactly what happens as the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and Stephen’s dying exclamation attest (Acts 7:56).

This prayer of Jesus didn’t stop there. He then went on to pray for His current and future disciples. Think about it. Jesus was moments away from being arrested on the way to the cross to endure the fullness of the cup of God’s wrath for you and for me. What is one of the last things that He does as a free man in this world? If you’ve been redeemed, He prayed for you! He prayed for me! He prayed for all who would follow Him! What exactly did He pray for?

In verse 11 and 21-23, He prayed for unity. Jesus prayed for unity among believers based on the believers’ unity with Him and the Father. Followers of Jesus can know unity among themselves if they are living in union with God. Each branch living in union with its vine is united with all other branches doing the same. What else did He pray for?

In verse 15, He prayed for protection. Jesus prayed for protection from the evil one. We see in this verse that Jesus didn’t pray for us to be removed from the world. His prayer here is for the Father to provide for us a means to be in the world but not of the world. How can we accomplish that and is there anything else that He prayed for?

Verses 17-19 answer the question, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them, I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.” Sanctification is the means by which we are able to remain in the world but not of the world. When we are redeemed, the Holy Spirit makes His dwelling in us and begins this process within us. This is a process that will continue for the rest of our lives. He begins to work in us to make us set apart and to make us holy. Through this process, our life and purpose as the redeemed shouldn’t look the same as the unredeemed.

As if it wasn’t already more than enough that we've been freed from the curse of sin, we have also been freed from the desire to sin! It’s not by some newfound self-control or behavior modification on our part. It’s found only in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit keeping us (the branches) attached to the Vine. We have to be willing to submit daily to this power working within us in order for the Spirit to make us look less ourselves and more like Christ. Through Him, we truly have all we need to accomplish all the good works that have been set before us. Let’s not be grace abusers. Let’s lean into this power and continue to be transformed!

Take 2 minutes to reflect in silence.

Reflection:

• Read verse 4 again. Will you be able to say this at the end of your life?
• Read 1 Thessalonians 4:7-8. There’s no growth with unconfessed sin. Ask the Spirit to illuminate the sin in your life so that you can turn from it and continue in this sanctification process.

Family Devo: John 17

By: Carrington Stuart

In today’s story from the Book of John, Jesus prays for His disciples, all of the people who ever have believed in Him, and everybody who will ever believe in Him! Isn’t that amazing? When Jesus prayed, He knew that He was going to go to the cross soon. He wanted to ask God to protect His disciples after He went back to Heaven. He asked God to help them to be brave and keep telling other people about Jesus even when they weren’t kind to them. He asked God to help them to be different from everyone else so that others would know that they loved God and followed Him.

Jesus also prayed for other people who would believe in Him and God one day. He knew that the disciples would tell other people about Him and God, and He wanted the disciples to have friends who could help them tell even more people!

Jesus prayed for everyone to know about Him so that they could also know about God - because Jesus is God’s Son! Now it’s our job to tell others about Jesus, too. Even though we live in this world, we don’t have to act like everyone around us. We should want to be like Jesus even when nobody around us is! Jesus will be with us always.

• How can you be more like Jesus and less like everyone around you? Who can you pray for this week who needs to follow Jesus? Who can you tell about Jesus this week?
• Prayer: God, thank You so much for sending Jesus to love me and teach me how to know You. Help me to be a good example to other people and show them how much You love them. Even though I live in this world, I want to be more like You! I want to pray for all of the people who don’t know about You and Your Son, Jesus. I want to tell everyone I know about You so that they can know You, too. I can’t wait to spend forever in Heaven with You and Jesus one day. I love You, God! In Jesus’ name, Amen.