Jesus Is Devoted

Devotion can be something that we quite easily put in a box. In our modern day, watered down, comfy world, we often equate devotion to the little readings we do first thing in the morning covered in hipster looking bible verses, or the time we spend each day in prayer or. But devotion goes so much deeper.

We are all devoted to something or someone. If we look at where we spend our time or our money it’s probably a good indication of what we are devoted to, what is first in our hearts and what receives the bulk of our affections. To define it exactly the dictionary would say, devotion is love, loyalty or enthusiasm for a person or activity. In short, devotion to God is enacted by the commandment: ‘Put no other god before Me.’

God should be the first priority.

In the prayer that Jesus prays in John 17, we are let in like never before to Jesus’ deep devotion to God.

John 17: 1-5:

“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.”

The night before his crucifixion, Jesus prays, what is likely, the greatest prayer in the Bible. Jesus prays for three things: Himself, His disciples and the Church. Each part of the prayer echoes one desire to glorify God; to live and now to die, devoted to God and His will, so that He may be glorified.

Everything Jesus ever did was out of devotion to God. When He resisted temptation, when He left his family and birthplace, when He was mocked, beaten and ultimately killed. It was all out of utter love and devotion to God. Nothing came before. It was simply obeying God’s will and bringing Him glory.

Before He came to earth, Jesus was with God. When He died, He was resurrected, returning to heaven to eternally glorify the Father. It was all about Him.

Even when praying for himself in vs 5 “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began”; Jesus is showing His devotion to the Father. Glory was found in the completion of God’s plan, in the death of Jesus and His resurrection, satisfying the task of redeeming humanity that He had been sent to earth to do.

Jesus’ devotion to God’s will brought him out of the comfort and glory of heaven and into the joyous oneness He shared with his Father to become lower than low, to be mocked, despised and killed, so that we might be able to share in His glory and enjoy eternal life with the Father.

But how far are we willing to go to truly be devoted to God? Devotion by its very nature can not be half-hearted. To say we will try to be more devoted contradicts what it is to be devoted! In order to be more devoted to God, to allow him to rule and reign in our lives, we need to find the other things that are taking our devotion, our time, our resources and our energy, and ask whether they glorify God.

Does the way we spend our lives, our time and our money reflect that God is number one to us, that we are all about him? Or does Netflix, our bed, our spouse, food, sport or a thousand other things stand in the way of us giving everything to God?

One of the most amazing things about God is no matter how unfaithful we are how, no matter how much we lack in our devotion, God is never unfaithful to us. He is wholly devoted to His children, holding nothing back. Not love. Not forgiveness. Not mercy. Not provision, protection or His presence.

Not even His Son.

The question that we must consider then, this Christmas, is are we fully devoted to him.