"At His Feet" 01 by Jenny Crandall
9-4-24
What you are about to read is not entirely mine. All of what follows is based on the devotional readings I have come to cherish from a book called, “At His Feet” by Chris Tiegreen. He has written several other books, and I encourage you to check them out.
Today’s devotional, my first of hopefully many, is the first in a 5-day miniseries Tiegreen titled “Fulfilling…”. The whole miniseries is based on John 17, Jesus’ high priestly prayer. I hope you are as encouraged as I have been by these 5 days, and I hope you take the time to dig deeper.
Day 1 - Fulfilling His MissionJohn 17:1-5
Jesus prays for Himself. Have you ever been taught that it’s selfish to pray for yourself before you pray for others? I have, and I never really embraced and applied that concept to my prayer time. My rationale for praying for myself first is that I must come to God as a sinner, in need of renewed, holy thinking before I bring the needs of others to Him. I don’t see that as selfish, I see it as proactive, surrendering my agenda for myself and others, so that nothing hinders my prayers. If Jesus found it necessary to appeal to His Father about Himself first, in this most critical of prayers we see from Him, why not me?
These opening five verses of John 17 are Jesus’ mission statement, not declaring what He will do (as modern organizational and personal mission statements do) but declaring what He has done. The previous chapter (16) narrates the final words Jesus said to His disciples, which is critical to understanding chapter 17. In 17:1-5 His work on earth is done; He fulfilled His mission. And now He turns His attention to His Father.
(Note: (v. 1-3) Have you ever wondered why Jesus refers to Himself in the 3rd person? I spent some time on this and didn’t find a whole lot of helpful commentary. My opinion is that for this moment that Jesus is appealing to the Father on His own behalf, He is mentally stepping back as fully human, objectively declaring His part in the Trinity as Christ, the One Who saves. It’s as if His human side is compelled to say out loud that what is to come…His death and resurrection…needs resolution.)
v.4 - Again, praying this prayer helps Jesus seal His mission to be the ultimate, last sacrifice for mankind. And it all results in glory to God. Jesus brought glory to God with His work on earth, and now He asks God to glorify Him/return Him to His former glory (v.5). Staying on mission is what brought Jesus to this point. We must also stay on mission, each one of us with the specific plan God is working out in our lives. That’s not easy to carry out, but Jesus is our example. During His earthly ministry, Jesus constantly left people behind who weren’t healed, didn’t respond favorably to every request, or stay busy for the sake of busyness. He was laser focused on His mission. How about you and me? Do we choose to spend our time based on a focused vision of what God wants to do through us? That’s hard to answer, but I know for sure what it won’t mean. It won’t mean that we’re everywhere or everything that others expect of us. It won’t mean that we worked so hard that we’re sure we managed to accomplish God’s will sometime during all our activity, although we’re not sure when. It won’t mean that we addressed every situation for which we felt sympathy, or gave to every organization that said they needed our financial help (not even ASOW!). May we be single-minded for the goal of discerning God’s will for our lives and devoting ourselves to accomplishing it by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Credit: Chris Tiegreen, At His Feet, p. 240, August 28
What you are about to read is not entirely mine. All of what follows is based on the devotional readings I have come to cherish from a book called, “At His Feet” by Chris Tiegreen. He has written several other books, and I encourage you to check them out.
Today’s devotional, my first of hopefully many, is the first in a 5-day miniseries Tiegreen titled “Fulfilling…”. The whole miniseries is based on John 17, Jesus’ high priestly prayer. I hope you are as encouraged as I have been by these 5 days, and I hope you take the time to dig deeper.
Day 1 - Fulfilling His MissionJohn 17:1-5
Jesus prays for Himself. Have you ever been taught that it’s selfish to pray for yourself before you pray for others? I have, and I never really embraced and applied that concept to my prayer time. My rationale for praying for myself first is that I must come to God as a sinner, in need of renewed, holy thinking before I bring the needs of others to Him. I don’t see that as selfish, I see it as proactive, surrendering my agenda for myself and others, so that nothing hinders my prayers. If Jesus found it necessary to appeal to His Father about Himself first, in this most critical of prayers we see from Him, why not me?
These opening five verses of John 17 are Jesus’ mission statement, not declaring what He will do (as modern organizational and personal mission statements do) but declaring what He has done. The previous chapter (16) narrates the final words Jesus said to His disciples, which is critical to understanding chapter 17. In 17:1-5 His work on earth is done; He fulfilled His mission. And now He turns His attention to His Father.
(Note: (v. 1-3) Have you ever wondered why Jesus refers to Himself in the 3rd person? I spent some time on this and didn’t find a whole lot of helpful commentary. My opinion is that for this moment that Jesus is appealing to the Father on His own behalf, He is mentally stepping back as fully human, objectively declaring His part in the Trinity as Christ, the One Who saves. It’s as if His human side is compelled to say out loud that what is to come…His death and resurrection…needs resolution.)
v.4 - Again, praying this prayer helps Jesus seal His mission to be the ultimate, last sacrifice for mankind. And it all results in glory to God. Jesus brought glory to God with His work on earth, and now He asks God to glorify Him/return Him to His former glory (v.5). Staying on mission is what brought Jesus to this point. We must also stay on mission, each one of us with the specific plan God is working out in our lives. That’s not easy to carry out, but Jesus is our example. During His earthly ministry, Jesus constantly left people behind who weren’t healed, didn’t respond favorably to every request, or stay busy for the sake of busyness. He was laser focused on His mission. How about you and me? Do we choose to spend our time based on a focused vision of what God wants to do through us? That’s hard to answer, but I know for sure what it won’t mean. It won’t mean that we’re everywhere or everything that others expect of us. It won’t mean that we worked so hard that we’re sure we managed to accomplish God’s will sometime during all our activity, although we’re not sure when. It won’t mean that we addressed every situation for which we felt sympathy, or gave to every organization that said they needed our financial help (not even ASOW!). May we be single-minded for the goal of discerning God’s will for our lives and devoting ourselves to accomplishing it by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Credit: Chris Tiegreen, At His Feet, p. 240, August 28
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