40 Days of Truth - 21
Dr Jim Brown's TruNorth Devotional
40 Days of TRUTH
Day 21 | SET APART
40 Days of TRUTH
Day 21 | SET APART
SET APART
John 17:17
“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”
In John 17 – Jesus is praying to His Father and specifically about His Followers. His children. His disciples.
If you are a Follower of Jesus, aka a Christian, then you are one of HIS and you have been set apart.
This prayer – in John 17 – is amazing and … it’s about YOU too.
Sanctify – means, to set apart. To make holy, to purify.
My wife makes Greek yogurt (for me) regularly. She takes a gallon of milk, gets her InstantPot, does her magic and voila – yogurt! But beside the milk, the MAIN “magic ingredient” is a little yogurt from a previous batch. At the RIGHT time this “starter” yogurt is added to the warm (but not too hot) milk, then over 11 hours it turns the milk into yogurt. It “grows” and “multiplies” if you will.
In this verse, Jesus was asking the Father to “sanctify” His followers and to help them grow (in the faith) and ultimately, multiply.
The NLT translation says: "Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth."
Although Jesus had spent time with His Followers and had taught them and shown them who HE was, Now He was asking the Father to make them HOLY – "by Your truth."
Holy – is a churchy kind of word – but can mean “having a divine quality.”
In other words, Jesus was asking the Father to set His Followers apart from the world by giving them a divine quality … a desire to worship God, to be filled and led by God’s Holy Spirit, and thus, to be available to be used by Him for whatever Father God needs them for.
Have you ever thought of yourself as having a “divine quality”? If you are truly a follower of Christ (aka a Christian) then you DO have that divine quality.
Back to my yogurt illustration – Jesus was asking the Father to help His Followers be like “starter yogurt” and multiply and change the “milk” into “yogurt,” or to help lead the lost people in this world into becoming followers of Jesus and worshippers of the One True God.
As a Christian – however young in the faith you may feel – YOU have a Godly purpose, whether you realize it or not. YOU have HIS divine quality in you. YOU were “bought with a price” and YOU are needed to help transform this world, not into yogurt (obviously), but into Godly men and women who acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and who will “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 6). This world, this country, and indeed YOUR community, needs YOU… because everyone needs Jesus.
Prayer: Lord, help me to remember that I have been set apart and adopted as a son (or daughter) of yours. I have a job to do while I’m on this earth – and that is to minister to people around me as You lead. Your Word is truth. Help me to share that Truth with those who don’t yet know You. Amen.
John 17:17
“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”
In John 17 – Jesus is praying to His Father and specifically about His Followers. His children. His disciples.
If you are a Follower of Jesus, aka a Christian, then you are one of HIS and you have been set apart.
This prayer – in John 17 – is amazing and … it’s about YOU too.
Sanctify – means, to set apart. To make holy, to purify.
My wife makes Greek yogurt (for me) regularly. She takes a gallon of milk, gets her InstantPot, does her magic and voila – yogurt! But beside the milk, the MAIN “magic ingredient” is a little yogurt from a previous batch. At the RIGHT time this “starter” yogurt is added to the warm (but not too hot) milk, then over 11 hours it turns the milk into yogurt. It “grows” and “multiplies” if you will.
In this verse, Jesus was asking the Father to “sanctify” His followers and to help them grow (in the faith) and ultimately, multiply.
The NLT translation says: "Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth."
Although Jesus had spent time with His Followers and had taught them and shown them who HE was, Now He was asking the Father to make them HOLY – "by Your truth."
Holy – is a churchy kind of word – but can mean “having a divine quality.”
In other words, Jesus was asking the Father to set His Followers apart from the world by giving them a divine quality … a desire to worship God, to be filled and led by God’s Holy Spirit, and thus, to be available to be used by Him for whatever Father God needs them for.
Have you ever thought of yourself as having a “divine quality”? If you are truly a follower of Christ (aka a Christian) then you DO have that divine quality.
Back to my yogurt illustration – Jesus was asking the Father to help His Followers be like “starter yogurt” and multiply and change the “milk” into “yogurt,” or to help lead the lost people in this world into becoming followers of Jesus and worshippers of the One True God.
As a Christian – however young in the faith you may feel – YOU have a Godly purpose, whether you realize it or not. YOU have HIS divine quality in you. YOU were “bought with a price” and YOU are needed to help transform this world, not into yogurt (obviously), but into Godly men and women who acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and who will “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 6). This world, this country, and indeed YOUR community, needs YOU… because everyone needs Jesus.
Prayer: Lord, help me to remember that I have been set apart and adopted as a son (or daughter) of yours. I have a job to do while I’m on this earth – and that is to minister to people around me as You lead. Your Word is truth. Help me to share that Truth with those who don’t yet know You. Amen.
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