January 21, 2026 | Be Connected
For God so Loved the World
Scripture: John 3:16-21(NIV)
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Devotional
God loved us so much that he gave us “the light.” He brought us his powerful wisdom through his Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
When I’ve always read this passage, in the past, I’ve always focused on the need to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. That is extremely important. This time, after including the rest of the passage, through verse 21, I’m seeing additional focus on the wisdom of God through Christ Jesus. When first reading John he writes “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” I believe The Word was, and is, God’s wisdom in Christ, and is deeper that I can ever understand. I often pray for myself, or for others, that God blesses us with discernment. That discernment is more wise and beneficial than any understanding that I have or will ever have.
In the past I’ve been blessed to learn that God answers prayer in ways far better than for what was actually prayed. Once many of us met and prayed for healing with a friend of our church. We met with our pastors and prayed and laid hands on him as he lay in his hospital bed. A few weeks later he passed away. We couldn’t understand why our prayers weren’t answered. At his eulogy, a pastor that none of us knew, stood up and introduced himself as his brother. He told us that his brother had never accepted Christ and that on the day we all prayed over him, he accepted Christ and was saved. His body hadn’t been healed but his soul was healed. That was a far better answer to our prayer than anything we could have imagined.
God blesses us with wisdom that is better that anything we can imagine.
Dear Loving Father, thank you for blessing us daily. We pray, Lord, that you help us understand when and how we’ve been blessed. Give us discernment, Lord, that we might see your power, your love, and your caring in each of our lives. Amen
