The Alarm System and the Refrigerator

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. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For 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. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I 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. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by 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. 14I 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. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify[b] them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Devotion                     
Many houses have security alarms which can be set to “go off” in case a door is opened after the alarm is set, if someone walks in a room where the motion detector is set, or a fire is detected. 

One day we set the alarm and went to work when our middle school aged granddaughter was still in bed. Our daughter, her aunt, was going to pick her up and meet us for lunch.  We thought that Laurie would get to the house and disarm the alarm before they left. This way we knew that no one else could get in the house, ensuring our granddaughter’s safety.

When our granddaughter was getting breakfast and opened the refrigerator, the motion detector decided it had had enough and, to say the least, it got noisy in a hurry!  We got a frantic phone call, calmed Nicole down, and helped her get the alarm quieted.

Parents protect their children and give them the security that they need.  Loving parents will do all that they humanly can to care for their children and keep them safe from harm.  In an even more perfect way Jesus protected those he was with while he was on earth.

As his time here was coming to an end, He prayed that God would continue to protect those He had been given.  It is comforting to know that God, who is our loving heavenly Father, cares for us even more than we care for our children.  He has built within us a special security alarm to warn us of danger and to keep us safe from attacks from Satan—the Holy Spirit.  The more we listen to the Spirit, the more we will realize how much God loves us and uses His alarm system to keep us safe and to enable us to get close to Him.

Prayer
Thank you for being a parent to us, keeping us safe and sending Jesus so we can spend eternity with you.   We praise you for the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives for the direction He gives us.