John 17:17

Devotional
We often want truth to comfort us, but sometimes truth comes to confront us. The sermon makes an important observation: “Sometimes the thing that offends you is the very thing you need to hear.” Truth can hurt. Truth can expose sin. Truth can confront our pride. Truth can reveal attitudes and behaviors we would rather leave untouched. But God's purpose in confronting us is not destruction. It is transformation. This is deeply connected to Wesleyan theology. God's grace does not merely forgive us and leave us unchanged. God's grace calls us toward holiness. Wesley called believers toward entire sanctification—a life increasingly surrendered to God's transforming grace and characterized by holy love. God's truth therefore doesn't simply tell us: “You are wrong.” It calls us: “Come deeper. Let Me transform you.” Hebrews 12:6 reminds us that God disciplines those He loves. The conviction of the Holy Spirit isn't God's hatred toward us. It is often evidence of God's love working in us. The question is what we do when truth exposes us. We can become defensive. We can make excuses. We can blame others. Or we can say: “Lord, change me.”

Read the Context
John 17 NIV
After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
6 “I have revealed you[a] to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 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[b] your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by[c] that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 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. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by[d] the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you 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. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you[e] known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
Footnotes

1. John 17:6 Greek your name
2. John 17:11 Or Father, keep them faithful to
3. John 17:12 Or kept them faithful to
4. John 17:17 Or them to live in accordance with
5. John 17:26 Greek your name

 
Make it Personal
What happens inside you when God's Word confronts something in your life? Do you become defensive—or teachable?
 
Practical Application
Read Psalm 139:23–24 slowly. Pray it honestly and allow the Holy Spirit to bring something specific to your attention.
 
Sample Prayer
Holy Spirit, search my heart. Show me anything in my life that does not reflect Jesus. Give me humility to receive Your correction and grace to change. I don't want merely to know the truth. I want the truth to transform me. Make me holy in heart and life. Amen.