Kept in the Middle of It

There are days when I catch myself wishing Jesus had prayed a different prayer for His followers. Something like, “Father, pull them out as soon as it gets hard,” or, “Build a safe little bubble around them where nothing ugly can touch them.” Instead, on the night before the cross, He said this: “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (John 17:15).

He was not asking for a bubble; He was asking for a miracle—holy lives in unholy surroundings. He knew the world would be noisy, seductive, confusing, and sometimes openly hostile. He knew what social pressure would feel like, what loneliness would feel like, what the pull of compromise would feel like. But He also knew that pulling His followers out of the world would contradict the very mission He came for. “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world” (John 17:18). His prayer wasn’t, “Father, relocate them,” but “Father, preserve them in place.”

That raises an honest question: is it really possible to remain free from evil in a world like ours? Not if “free from evil” means never tempted, never assaulted, never grieved. Even Jesus “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). But if “free from evil” means not yielding, not cherishing sin, not being mastered by it—then yes, in Christ, it is not only possible; it is promised. “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14).

Our part is not to grit our teeth and pretend the battlefield isn’t real. Our part is cooperation. Guarding the avenues of the soul. Choosing our companions and our content carefully. Turning off what dulls our conscience. Resisting the first whisper of compromise instead of waiting until it grows into a shout. Clinging to Christ in every conflict—small and large. We cannot keep ourselves by sheer willpower, but we can choose where to stand, what to look at, whom to trust. And God meets those choices with power. “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8).

Sometimes we quietly wish we could disappear into a little spiritual village somewhere—no social media, no pressure, no difficult people, no temptations brushing past us in the hallway or glowing from a screen. But if all the believers vanished, what would this world lose? More than we realize. Scripture says, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men” (2 Corinthians 3:2). We are left here, not as display pieces in a glass case, but as living letters—embodied sermons, walking through grocery aisles and school corridors and office break rooms.

The great controversy isn’t only about us going to heaven someday; it’s about God’s character being vindicated on earth. The universe is watching to see whether His law can be written in human hearts here and now. If the only place obedience worked was in a perfect, sinless environment, the enemy’s accusations would stand. But when grace makes a heart pure in a very impure world—when a young person chooses honesty over cheating, purity over pressure, kindness over cruelty, worship over amusement—that becomes a quiet testimony that Christ in us is stronger than the culture around us.

One of my favorite promises for this is Jude 24: “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.” I love that word “keep.” He does pick us up when we fall, yes—but the verse goes further. He is able to keep us from falling, even while our feet are still walking dusty roads, even while we are still surrounded by advertisements, opinions, distractions, and spiritual fog. His keeping power does not require a sanitized environment; it requires a surrendered heart.

So perhaps instead of asking, “Lord, why won’t You just take me out of this?” we can learn to pray, “Lord, keep me in the middle of this. Keep my mind clean when the world is loud. Keep my heart soft when others grow cynical. Keep my eyes on Jesus when everything else is clamoring for my attention. Keep me from the evil—not just outside of me, but inside of me.”

We may not live in a bubble, but we are never outside His hand. And if His prayer is that we would be kept, and His promise is that sin shall not have dominion, then we can step into each day—into school, into work, into family life, into a very real world—believing that His grace is enough. Enough to hold us. Enough to change us. Enough to make us shine as “lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life” (Philippians 2:15–16), right where we are, until He comes to take us home.

If this Fireside Chat warmed your spirit and sparked fresh resolve to live what you believe, fan that flame with Scripture—“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16). Pull a little closer to the Light, and carry it into the week ahead.

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