Week 10
Step 01: Pause and Prepare
Find a quiet place and quiet your mind. Pause. Take a couple of deep breaths. This biblical practice is taught throughout the Psalms. Hit the mute button on all the other voices in your life. Clear your thoughts so God's Word can fill them. If you feel like rushing past this part that's how you know for sure you need to do it!
Think upon our foundational scriptures, then go to Step 02.
"For the word of God is alive and powerful."
Hebrews 4:12, NLT
Remember you're about to encounter the living God in His living Word!
"...train yourself in godliness."
1 Timothy 4:7b, ESV
Our discipline to create time for devotions is essential. But it doesn't change our lives. It is God's Spirit alone that transforms us. Open your heart to God and read the scriptures!
Step 02: Read the Scripture Passage
John 17:20-24, NLT
“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. 21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. 24 Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!
22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. 24 Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!
Want to read today's passage in a different version? Visit Bible Gateway and choose your favorite!
Step 03: Answer the Four Questions
Grab your notebook and write down your answers to these four questions. It will help you engage with the text, process what God's Word is saying to you, and encounter God in your devotional time.
* If you find it difficult to figure out what the scripture passage is about we highly recommend getting a study bible.
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Question #1
What does the scripture say?
In your own words, what you think the scripture passage or story is about.
(Touch the dots for more questions.)
Question #2
What does the scripture say to me?
What do you feel the passage is speaking to you in regard to your life or current situation?
Need a little help? Click here.
Question #3
What do I want to say to God about the text?
What emotions and thoughts does the text create in you? Communicate them in prayer.
Question #4
What difference will this text make in my life?
In what way does this text help you live for God?
What is John 17:20-24 about?
This passage is part of a prayer from Jesus Himself. He is praying it in the final hours of His life the night before the crucifixion. In only a short time, maybe an hour or so, His best friends will all scatter and abandon Him as He's betrayed by Judas and arrested. So, Jesus prays that His followers would eventually be brought into perfect unity. That through His death the scattering that is about to happen would be reversed, so to speak. Jesus makes it clear why this unity is so important. It's how the world will know that He really is the Son of God and that God the Father loves the world as much as Jesus. For us, we have to ask how important this unity is our own lives. In our own church. Jesus gave His life for us to have it. It is, in His own words, our great witness to the world showing that Jesus really is the Son of God, and that God loves the world. The question is, will we fight—in the power of Jesus' own Spirit—to have the unity He desires for us? And are we willing to lay down some preferences, or prejudices, of our own in order to achieve it?
