“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth. (John 17:6-19, NRSV)
I am not asking you to take them out of the world…
We do not get an escape card and automatically sucked up into heaven with Jesus when we become a christian…
We get to stay here in the world and be Jesus’ hands and feet. Which means that all of life will still be weighing down on us.
We don’t need to pretend that we can do it on our own either. You see here, Jesus says that he protected the disciples while he was here, and here he is asking the Father to continue to protect them.
We are not alone in this walk, and we do not have to pretend to be perfect, like there are no problems when we are Christians.
Yes we are set apart from the world, but we are still in the world. We are sanctified, hallowed, and set apart. But we are walking together in this world, as his body.
We are not without struggles, and we need to show that, and be broken together with Jesus giving us life.
Here is a video for a song that is inspiring me now:
aSacredRebel 