(#1560) Day 6. Jesus’ Trusted God’s Will And Timing - So Will I (16/9/26)

Welcome to this Come to Jesus Daily Devotional (currently posted on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) as we continue our 9-week series: Fresh Vision From Jesus' High Priestly Prayer from John 17. 

To watch this devotional, go to:

Please read John 17:1-5

Learning to trust that God is actively involved in every detail of our lives - and discerning His will - can be one of the greatest challenges of the Christian life.

At the beginning of His prayer, Jesus says:

Jesus knew that "the hour” - the appointed time for His suffering, death, and resurrection - had arrived according to His Father's plan. He understood that through the cross both He and His Father would be glorified. Although the path before Him would be unimaginably painful, Jesus trusted His Father completely.

Throughout John's Gospel, Jesus repeatedly speaks of His Father's will and His confidence in the Father's plan. Just one chapter earlier, He told His disciples:

Jesus lived with a deep awareness that His life was in His Father's hands. He trusted not only what His Father had planned, but He also trusted His when. 

This is the vision Jesus sets before us. We are to seek our Father's will, trust His timing, and rest in His sovereign care. There will be seasons when His guidance is wonderfully clear, and there will be times when we feel uncertain or perplexed. Yet even when we cannot fully understand what God is doing, we can still trust Him, knowing that our lives are safely held in His hands. 

The Psalmist writes:

Even in life's darkest and most confusing moments, Jesus calls us to see God as our present, loving Father.

In John 16, Jesus prepares His disciples for the difficult days that lay ahead:

Jesus knew that His disciples would abandon Him. Humanly speaking, He would face the cross alone. Yet He was never truly alone, because His Father was with Him.

Also notice something remarkable: by telling His disciples what was about to happen, Jesus shows that these painful events were not outside God's control. They were part of His Father's sovereign plan.

Recently, I was walking through Barnes Common when I came to a little stream. As I crossed the small footbridge, I looked down into the sun-sparkling water and noticed a fluffy dog toy lying in the shallows. It was sodden, bedraggled and forgotten. I found myself thinking about the child who had once treasured it, perhaps pestering their parent to buy it, and how precious it had once been to them. Now it was lying abandoned in the stream.

But this is not true of us! God has not abandoned us, forgotten us or stopped loving us. We may sometimes feel lost, overlooked or forgotten, but we are never forgotten by God. We are precious to Him, and He will never let us go.

This is the vision of God that Jesus wants us to have. Whatever trials we face, we can know that our Father is with us. His presence gives us ‘peace’ in the midst of trouble, and courage to keep going. Like Jesus, we are called to ‘take heart’ by trusting our Father's presence, will and His perfect timing, confident that He is working for His glory and for our ultimate good.

Moment To Reflect

Jesus' vision for each of us is that we learn to trust our Father's good, pleasing, and perfect will, and His perfect timing.

• Can you honestly say, "My life is in my Father's hands”?

• Can you say, "I trust my Father's will and His timing, even when I don't understand”?

• Jesus walked the path of suffering before entering His glory. How does His example encourage you to trust that God is working all things together for your good and for His glory (Romans 8:28)?

Download the booklet

Below is the link to download the devotional booklet: Fresh Vision From Jesus Prayer. This is a series of 27 devotionals based upon Jesus' High Priestly Prayer in John 17.

This year we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of CCP; to watch our anniversary video, please select the link below:

Community Group Study

1. Notices

It might be good to begin with notices. Please share from this week’s Church News. 

2. Icebreaker

Following the summer period, you may want to use this time to catch up and reconnect. 

It not, you could discuss: How has God been speaking to you from His Word recently, and how has this helped you? 

3. Worship together

Let’s begin our time together by lifting our eyes and hearts to worship our great God. Perhaps you have readings and songs that you would like to use together. Let’s be open to the gifts that the Spirit wants to give in order to encourage one another.

4. Study and pray together

Balanced Time Allocation - Please ensure a balanced focus on discussion, SIV (Serve, Invest, and Invite), and prayer so that each section is meaningful and fruitful.

On Sunday, we continue our series, Fresh Vision From Jesus’ Prayer, reflecting on God’s vision for our lives and the church through Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer in John 17.

(Note: To accompany this series, we have produced a devotional series. To download the full booklet, visit our devotional page or go directly to communitychurchputney.com/post/fresh-vision-from-jesus-prayer. Daily devotions will also be posted every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on the Community Church Putney channel.)

Read John 17:1–5 together and discuss:

• What spoke to, challenged or inspired you from Sunday’s message?

• Has anything from the series of devotions particularly encouraged or helped you? If so, what could you share with the group?

• On Sunday, we reflected on how, like Jesus, we need a vision of what it means to live as a child of God. How does this understanding of who we are transform the way we live?

• We also considered the complementary truth that, like Jesus, our times are in the Father’s hands. We are therefore called to learn to trust God in every season of life. What are some of the things that can shake a Christian’s faith? If you’re willing, you might like to share from your own past or present experience.

• How can we learn to be like Christ, who trusted His Father in every season - even in the darkest of times? 

Let’s pray together: 

• For our new series: Pray that God uses Fresh Vision From Jesus’ Prayer to inspire, refresh, and re-envision us as a church.

• For Serendipity: Pray for Graeme, the team, and the relaunch in its new format. Ask God to raise up more volunteers from within the church family.

• For students: Pray for the young people in our church and community who are heading off to university.

• Let’s pray for one another based on our study, and bring before God any other needs or requests for prayer.

SIV: 

• Have you had any recent opportunities to Serve, Invest in, or Invite someone toward Jesus? Let’s encourage one another by sharing testimonies of God at work through us.

• Pray for the ‘people of peace’ in our lives, asking God to open their hearts and give us the Love and boldness to share His love as He opens opportunities.