Our Father, which are in heaven, You are worthy of our praise. Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord from the heavens; Praise in the heights! Praise Him all His Angels; Praise Him, all His hosts! [Psalms 148:1&2]
Holy Spirit Your word tells us: Don’t abandon wisdom, and she will watch over you; love her, and she will guard you. Wisdom is supreme—so get wisdom. And whatever else you get, get understanding. Cherish her, and she will exalt you; if you embrace her, she will honor you. [Proverbs 4:6-8] Christ gave us wisdom when he said: “You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you, don’t resist an evildoer. On the contrary, if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. As for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt, let him have your coat as well. And if anyone forces you to go a mile, go with him two. Give the one who asks you, and don’t turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” [Matthew 5:38-42] The wisdom Christ was trying to extol on the Jewish people and to us is that people who slap us, use courts to steal from us or lords over us to make us do something thinks that they have stolen Your freedom, but by following the practice Christ proposes takes that ability away from them and allows Me to control my freedom. Possessions are only good here on the earth anyway. People who attack you with a slap or a punch want to bring you down to their level to fight on their terms. Those who use the courts to sue and steal are so petty that they expose themselves for who they are. I would rather be poor and have my integrity, than be rich with things and have no friends because of your greed or fear of You stealing from them.
Holy Spirit help me to continue to dig deeper and find wisdom in Your word. Help me learn the context and direction so that I can grow in understanding and be more of the person Christ wants me to be. Help me to be more worried about my salvation, my destination of reaching heaven to see Christ, who died for my sins, and all the saints, family, and friends who are already there. Let me not be the reason a person uses to avoid salvation or God.
Finally, let me learn and understand when Christ prayed: Now I’m returning to you. I’m saying these things in the world’s hearing so my people can experience My joy completed in them. I gave them Your word; the godless world hated them because of it they didn’t join the world’s ways. Just as I didn’t join the world’s ways. I’m not asking that you take them out of the world but that you guard them from the Evil One. They are no more defined by the world than I am defined by the world. Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth; Your word is consecrating truth. In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world. I’m consecrating myself for their sakes, so they’ll be truth-consecrated in their mission. I’m praying not only for them but also for those who will believe in me because of them and their witness about me. The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, so they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me. The same glory you gave me, I gave them, so they’ll be as unified and together as we are—I in them and you in me. Then they’ll be mature in this oneness, and give the godless world evidence that you’ve sent me and loved them in the same way you’ve loved me. Father, I want those you gave me to be with me, right where I am, so they can see my glory, the splendor you gave me, having loved me long before there ever was a world. Righteous Father, the world has never known you. But I have known you, and these disciples know that you sent me on this mission. I have made your very being known to them—who you are and what you do—and continue to make it known, so that your love for me might be in them exactly as I am in them. (Amen) John 17:13-26, the Message