Do you, like me, ever wish to be taken out of a scenario? Maybe it’s a job you don’t love, or a challenge you never asked for. Maybe it’s learning to live with a diagnosis you never saw coming.
We often think that it’s easier to just end the situation than to go thru it.
Jesus understood that human desire. He also knew that it is often in those very situations we detest that God is working on our hearts and improving our faith each day we’re stuck in that scenario.
In John 17, Jesus spoke to God about the disciples. Jesus had given them God’s word, or Himself (See John 1:1-14), and the world hated them.
Jesus said something amazing, “for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.” Jesus was comparing the spiritual state of the disciples to Himself.
Then Jesus prayed an interesting prayer for His disciples. He didn’t pray for the easy way out- that God stop the hardships. “My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one.” (John 17:15 NIV)
Jesus was not nearly as concerned about them being in the world, which was a hostile place to believers in Jesus, as He was shoring up protection for them against anything the ‘evil one’ or Satan might want to inflict upon them.
Jesus knew what the world was like. He knew what it had in store for Him and how it had rejected Him.
He also knew what the enemy could do.
And He was much more concerned about what the disciples could not see than what they could.
Does this give you pause, as it does me?
Do you, too, feel that we should spend a bit more time praying against the enemy of our souls than the enemy we think we see before us?
God knows we can’t handle navigating life on our own, even when we don’t know or see danger. I am challenged by the fact that just because I can’t see any danger does not mean it’s not there, lurking in the background, hiding behind a spiritual screen, ready to attack my soul.
The very thought sends a shiver down my spine. But we needn’t live in fear! We need to pray and trust God will handle it, especially when we can’t see it.
Will you join me in prayer for just that?
Prayer: Dear Lord, You know far better than I what wants to take me down. You teach us not to fear the body but fear that which can threaten the soul. Remind me to pray as Jesus prayed for the disciples that I can withstand the evil one. Teach me to look and protect with spiritual eyes, not human eyes. In Jesus’ name, amen.