Read John 17:12-16
God Protects Us, Not From Pain, But From Deception.
Jesus continues praying to God for the believers. Jesus prayed to God saying, “While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe.” It was Jesus’s desire for his disciples to experience his Joy to the fullest despite the fact that they were hated for following God’s word.
But when things aren’t going well it’s hard to have joy. Yet it’s a gift from God. He wants us to trust him so much and believe so much that the predicament we’re in he knew was going to happen and he promised that he would never leave us nor forsake us. Therefore, we can trust him and have joy knowing that he has a plan to get us through it. It isn’t his desire to remove us from challenging obstacles, but rather to go through it with us so that we can grow and mature and be sanctified more into the image of God’s holiness.
Jesus says he doesn’t want to take us out of this world but he does want us to not be of the world. Be in it because he’s sending us so we can be a witness to lost souls. But while you’re in it, don’t conform to their evilarar practices but be an example of what a Christ follower looks like in hopes that they would want to join you in a relationship with Jesus.
And as you go through this whole process Jesus wants to protect you from the evil one’s deceptions. The devil wants to destroy your faith so that you quit reaching lost souls. The devil will do everything he can to get you to walk away from the faith, or be discouraged because of persecution.
God will protect you and give you the grace and strength needed to persevere to even the most difficult situations including death.
God’s protection does not mean never experiencing pain. It means being protected so that your faith does not falter or waiver even when you’re going through pain. He will go through it with us, because he’s been there and done that. He understands.
