This 5-day devotional draws directly from Forest Baptist Church's sermon “July 12th, Morning Worship - 2026-07-13” so you can keep engaging with the message all week. Read, reflect, and share it with your small group or friends.
What Jesus Actually Wants for You
Monday — Understanding the Truth
Have you ever caught yourself asking God, "What do you want from me?" — half frustrated, half genuinely confused?
Today's Scripture "I am praying for them… All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them." — John 17:9–10
Reflection There's a better question hiding inside that one. Not "What does God want from me?" but "What does God desire for me?"
In John 17, Jesus is hours away from the cross. He knows what's coming. And in those final, weighted moments, he prays — not for himself first, but for the people he loves. He prays for his disciples. And because of that, he's praying for you.
What does he ask for? Five things: that you'd truly know God, that your faith would persevere, that you'd have his joy, that you'd be shaped more like him over time, and that you'd live on mission — carrying his love into your everyday world.
This isn't a to-do list handed down from a distance. It's a prayer breathed out by someone who loves you deeply. Jesus isn't standing over you with a clipboard. He's interceding for you with the Father.
That changes everything about how you approach your day. You're not trying to earn his approval. You're stepping into something he's already asked for on your behalf.
Today's Step Take sixty seconds right now and simply receive this: Jesus is praying for you. Let that sink in before you do anything else today.
A Closing Thought You are not on your own in this. You never were.
The Kind of Knowing That Changes Everything
Tuesday — When It's Hard
Be honest — when someone mentions "studying theology" or "growing in your knowledge of God," does part of you quietly think, That's not really for me?
Today's Scripture "Now they know that everything you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you." — John 17:7–8
Reflection Most of us are comfortable with the basics. Jesus loves me, he died for me, I'm forgiven — and honestly, that's enough to hold onto on a hard day. There's nothing wrong with that foundation. The gospel really is that simple.
But here's the thing: Jesus prayed specifically that his followers would know God. Not just know about him — but genuinely know him, the way you know someone you've done life with for years.
And that kind of knowing takes time. It takes showing up. It takes reading, listening, sitting with questions you don't have answers to yet. For a lot of us, that feels like too much. Life is already full. Where does deep, growing knowledge of God even fit?
Here's where it gets tender: the disciples came to know Jesus by receiving his words, believing them, and keeping them. Not perfectly. Not all at once. Just faithfully, over time.
You don't have to be a scholar. You just have to keep showing up — to his word, to prayer, to honest conversation with him. The knowing grows from there.
Today's Step Ask yourself honestly: Do I love God more today than I did when I first met him? Whatever your answer, bring it to him — he can handle it.
A Closing Thought God isn't looking for perfection. He's looking for you — curious, open, and willing to keep coming back.
Joy That Doesn't Depend on Your Circumstances
Wednesday — Putting It Into Practice
What if the joy you're chasing is already available to you — just not where you've been looking?
Today's Scripture "But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves." — John 17:13
Reflection Jesus doesn't pray that his disciples would have a joy or some joy. He prays they'd have his joy — full, complete, overflowing. That's a remarkable thing to ask for.
And it raises an obvious question: where do you actually find it?
We tend to look in the right direction — we want to be fulfilled, we want to feel at peace, we want something solid to hold onto. The problem isn't the longing. It's where we go to satisfy it. A better job, a cleaner house, a resolved conflict, a good weekend — these things bring relief, maybe even happiness. But they can't carry the weight of what we're really after.
Jesus's joy is rooted in something that doesn't shift: his relationship with the Father. And he offers that same rootedness to you.
So practically, what does that look like today? Start with his word — even five minutes. Let it recalibrate you before the noise of the day takes over. Pray honestly, even if it's just a sentence. Return to the truth that you are known and loved by God, not because of what you've done, but because of what Jesus did.
These aren't magic steps. They're the path back to the source.
Today's Step Before you scroll your phone this morning, spend two minutes reading one psalm. Let it be the first voice you hear today.
A Closing Thought The joy Jesus prayed for you isn't found at the end of a better day. It's found in him — and he's already here.
The Gift Hidden Inside the Hard Season
Thursday — What This Looks Like in Real Life
Think about the hardest season you've been through. Now ask: what did it do to you?
Today's Scripture "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." — James 1:2–4
Reflection Imagine someone who spent years asking God to take away a painful situation — a chronic health struggle that wouldn't resolve, a relationship that stayed broken longer than seemed fair. For a long time, the only prayer was please make it stop.
But slowly, something shifted. Not the circumstances — those stayed hard. What changed was the person inside them. The impatience softened. The need to control loosened its grip. A quiet trust grew in its place, the kind that doesn't come from easy days.
That's sanctification. It's the slow, sometimes uncomfortable process of becoming more like Jesus — and it almost always happens in the middle of something difficult.
Jesus didn't pray for his disciples to be removed from the hard things. He prayed for them to be sustained through them. He asked the Father to sanctify them in the truth. Because he knew what we often forget: the trial isn't the enemy of your growth. It's frequently the means of it.
That doesn't make the pain disappear. But it does mean you're not wasting it. God is doing something in you that couldn't happen any other way.
Today's Step Is there something hard in your life right now that you've only been asking God to remove? Try asking instead: What might you be doing in me through this?
A Closing Thought The same hands that hold the world are shaping you — carefully, purposefully, and with more love than you know.
You Were Saved to Be Sent
Friday — Carrying It Forward
What if your ordinary Friday — your errands, your conversations, your commute — was actually a mission field?
Today's Scripture "As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world." — John 17:18
Reflection All week we've been sitting with Jesus's prayer for his followers — for you to know God, persevere in faith, overflow with his joy, and be shaped more like him over time. And now, here at the end of the prayer, Jesus pulls it all together with this: you've been sent.
Not someday. Not if you go on a mission trip or join a ministry team. Now. Into your world, as it actually is.
Jesus modeled this. He was set apart — consecrated — and then sent. And his prayer is that the same would be true of you. The word sanctified that he uses for his followers echoes the word consecrated he uses for himself. Set apart, then sent out.
That means the coffee shop conversation matters. The neighbor who seems closed off matters. The coworker going through something hard matters. You don't have to have all the answers or a polished speech. You just have to show up — present, prayerful, and willing.
A quiet faith kept entirely to yourself is safe. But Jesus didn't pray for your safety. He prayed for your sending.
As you head into the weekend, carry this with you: you are known by God, sustained by God, filled with his joy, being shaped by him — and sent by him into the very places you're already going.
Today's Step Ask God for one specific person to notice this weekend — and one simple way to show up for them.
A Closing Thought You don't have to go far to live on mission. You just have to go — and he'll be with you every step of the way.