Welp. For the last week of “Media Fast” I will be aiming to blog every day.
Oh, the irony.
Aside from feeling led to write about the internal nature of simplicity, there were some personal family reasons I wanted to redo this fast. Having children really makes you evaluate what you input and what you don’t and why and how much.
(Speaking of children, I laughed the other day to realize how I started last week’s blog post. How willing my children are to go along and give things up. Over the course of that very day, that was not the case. I laughed even further when at Super Church on Sunday my oldest wrote on his Thanksgiving Tree Leaf that he was grateful for video games. And there you have it.)
In The 7 Experiment, Jen dives into John 17. I have committed to not picking her book back up, but rather to dig in myself and write through different thoughts on media. And we cannot do that without John 17.
“I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours…I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.
Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name – the name you gave me – so that they may be one as we are one…
I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one…
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world….”
John 17:9, 11, 14-15, 17-18
They are still in the world…I have sent them into the world.
Protect them by the power of your name…protect them from the evil one…sanctify them by the truth.
These verses say we are protected from the world and the evil one by two things:
The power of His Name and The Truth
And not only are we still in the world – which could be read as something like as long as we have to put up with this world and its people and problems – but we are sent into the world.
As in, we have a mission here.
But this place is dark. Sometimes I feel like we can distance ourselves from that evil enough to forget how truly wicked the prince of this world is. Here in our city something happened recently that is hard for me to even think about.
And yet, sticking our heads in the sand isn’t the answer.
In this context the answer is the power of His Name and The Truth.
How we desperately need both.
I have been in Psalms right now with God. I’ve been struck by the conditions David attaches to some of his pleas for protection:
Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in You…
For the sake of Your name, lead and guide me…
Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, for I have cried out to You…
Vindicate me in Your righteousness…
Deliver me from the wicked and save me, because I take refuge in You…
Give the command to save me, for You are my rock and my fortress…
It is so like Proverbs 18:10:
“The name of the LORD is a strong tower;
The righteous run to it and are safe.”
I’ve found myself doing what David did.
Jesus, because of what You did on the cross….Not because of my righteousness, but because of Your righteousness in me…As I hide myself in You…Because You are my only hope in this situation…
Making His Name my Strong Tower.
This is especially comforting for times when I’ve messed up. I rarely feel morally superior to those around me (and if I do it’s because I’m being severely forgetful and choosing pride). I am such a work in progress, but I am so unbelievably grateful He has promised to use this jar of clay that I am to show this all-surpassing power is from Him and not me.
I am further grateful that I can claim if I’ve confessed my sins, He has forgiven me (1 John 1:9). But even more I can ask for the sake of His Name and because of His perfection, that He would take my mistake and do something for His glory and everyone’s good in that situation.
So. The power of His Name.
It’s like that song we sometimes sing, At the Sound of Your Great Name:
Lost are saved, find their way…
All condemned feel no shame…
Every fear has no place…
The enemy, he has to leave…
At the sound of Your Great Name!
It’s just the facts. In the spiritual world, at the Name of Jesus of Nazareth, evil has to bow down to Him.
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
And gave him the name that is above every name,
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
In heaven and on earth and under the earth,
And every tongue confess
That Jesus Christ is Lord,
To the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:9-11
True, the Story isn’t finished yet. And the enemy is given a short leash of power for the time being. But because Jesus the Messiah ultimately made a public spectacle of the powers and authorities by triumphing over them on the cross (Col 2:15), His Name is the pinnacle of authority.
Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your Name – the name You gave me…
I do believe we should save The Truth for tomorrow, eh? So many words!