“Your Word

Is Truth”

“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

Have you ever played pretend? You pretend to be someone you are not. You watch a movie and become the actor. It is not reality. However, some of us pretend to be what we are not. What we pretend to do in church has no bearing on our lives, the rest of the week. On Sunday we praise God heartily, but during the week we seemingly become someone different. What we express in worship is not carried through in our behavior.

God has placed us here to make a difference in our world. As he protects us from falling for the wiles of the evil one, He wants us to live by the same consistent standards in every aspect of our lives – not just on Sunday.

Some people have heaven on their tongues,

but the world in their hearts.

Our Daily Bread – April 19, 2008