The World May Believe
Elaine Poproski Download: Audio
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Scripture: John 17:20 – 26
“I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. Read more…
Looking to Sunday
by Elaine Poproski
God invites us into the most extraordinary relationship. He invites us to be his children and his friends. He invites us to know him. He invites us to know what it is to be loved by him. Can you believe that God, who created all things – the sun, the moon, the stars, and everything else – knows you and loves you? He doesn’t love you because you’re perfect or because you’re loveable. He loves you because you are his child. He loves you because he made you. He loves you, plain and simple.
There’s nothing we can do to make God stop loving us or love us less. Regardless of whether we think we’re worth it, or whether we want it, we are loved by God. His love is unending. It is unconditional.
From January through to the beginning of May, we focused on knowing this God who loves us. We’ve focused on strengthening our relationship with him – our friendship with him. And we did so by exploring and practicing a variety of Spiritual Disciplines, which we understand to be tried-and-true tools that help put us in a position to know God.
Was there anything you learned about God over these last months? Or about yourself? Are you convinced that God wants to be known by you? Does the idea of friendship with God resonate with you yet?
As you may have noticed, over the last couple of Sundays our focus has shifted. I’ve started pointing out the so that’s in Scripture. Two weeks ago, we read Jesus’ words from John 13:34 – 35, in which Jesus tells his disciples that they are to love each other. Then he tells them why. He says this: By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Last Sunday we dug into Psalm 67, which opens with familiar words of blessing. They’re spoken as a prayer – as a request for God’s blessing. But the Psalm doesn’t stop with that prayer. It continues with a so that. These are the opening verses of that psalm: May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us,
so that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.
This Sunday we’re returning to the Gospel of John. In John 14:21 we’ll read these words of Jesus: “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
Being loved by God is an extraordinary thing. But it’s not the only thing. Everything God has done, is doing, and will do for us is done so that the whole world might know him and might know what it is to be loved by him. Knowing God ourselves is important. It’s essential. But it is not the whole story. It is not an end in and of itself. That’s why we’re shifting our focus to the so that…
As you prepare for Sunday, how are you feeling about the shift in focus? In some ways it’s simpler to focus on our own, individual relationship with God. If we take the so that’s seriously, though, we cannot remain isolated in our individual relationships with God. What does it mean to you that everything God has done, is doing, and will do for you is done so that the whole world might know him and might know what it is to be loved by him?