Thoughts for the Day

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.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

What is it about the Christian faith that first attracted us? Perhaps it was a story from the Bible, or something about another Christian that attracted us. My mother ,Olive, was the spark for me! She sang hymns, choruses, and spirituals whenever she was happy. I learnt old songs, that came originally from her childhood in Costa Rica or the Baptist church she attended in London as a young woman, things like 'I will make you fishers of men', 'I am H A P P Y', 'Will your anchor hold', and 'Jesus bids us shine'. In the first five years of my life I often attended her midweek church fellowship meeting. It's at times like this that the Holy Spirit is at work moving us towards God. Often it's only when we look back that be can see how we're growing in faith and how we're changing, just as we see how the disciples will change after Jesus leaves them, because of the arrival of the Holy Spirit.

In this passage from John's Gospel, today, we can see Jesus praying that the disciples will be protected from the evil one. Whether or not we believe in Satan as a figure with horns and a tail, evil is a powerful force in our world today, often only half hidden, and Christians are not safe from evil just because we have faith in God. Indeed perhaps because of our faith, we can attract it. Evil can come in all sorts of ways, from being led along wrong paths, to developing bad habits, associating with the wrong people, or even from being submerged by the things of this world.

Ultimately, we need follow the example of Jesus and develop a deep relationship with our Heavenly Father and stay in constant contact with Him through prayer - for ourselves, for one another, and for our world.

Heavenly Father,
You call us to Yourself
if only we will listen;
and You seek to show Your love for us
if only we will ask for forgiveness.
May we learn to talk to You -
daily, even hourly,
for ourselves and others.
and grow ever closer to You.
Amen.