7 Day Devotional

Day 1: Being An Outsider

General • •

“I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one — as you are in me, Father, and I am in you.” — John 17:20–21 (NLT)

Day 2: Not Identical, Just One

General • •

“I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one.” — John 17:21 (NLT)

Day 3: The Heart, Not the Head or Hands

General • •

“The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” — 1 Samuel 16:7 (NLT)

Day 4: There Is Still Room

General • •

“Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame… There is still room for more.” — Luke 14:21–22 (NLT)

Day 5: Honour in Every Direction

General • •

“I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb.” — Revelation 7:9 (NLT)

Day 6: Eating With the Ones You Disagree With

General • •

“Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people — even eating with them.” — Luke 15:1–2 (NLT)

Day 7: Many Nations, One Family, One King

General • •

“Make us one as You are one… because we’re one in You, and because of that, we’re also extending our love to others.” “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one.” — John 17:21 (NLT)

Day 1: Being An Outsider

General • •

“I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one — as you are in me, Father, and I am in you.” — John 17:20–21 (NLT)

Devotion

There’s a story many of us recognise even if the details differ. A classroom. A circle of kids. Someone left outside it. And the strange, uncomfortable relief of being on the inside because you weren’t excluded.

Pastor Leon tells this story about his own grade one classroom — a girl no one wanted to sit with, and how he felt good simply for not being her. Then, a few years later, his own family’s faith journey made him the outsider in his Christian school. The same kids who once excluded someone else started excluding him. He learned something most of us eventually learn the hard way: we have all been on both sides of that circle.

Jesus’ prayer in John 17 cuts directly against this pattern. He didn’t pray that His followers would all believe identically or behave identically. He prayed that they would be one in the same way He and the Father are one. Distinct, yet united. We often celebrate the vertical relationship with God and quietly tolerate the horizontal relationship with each other. This week is about closing that gap.

Reflection

Think back to a moment where you were either included and/or excluded. What did you learn about yourself in that moment?

Where in your life right now might you be quietly relieved that you’re “in” while someone else is “out”?

Prayer

Lord, I’ve been on both sides of that circle. I know what it feels like to be relieved I wasn’t the target, and I know what it feels like to be the target. Today I bring that honestly to You. Make me someone who notices who’s been left outside the circle, and move towards them with Jesus. Amen.

Day 2: Not Identical, Just One

General • •

“I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one.” — John 17:21 (NLT)

Devotion

When Jesus prayed for unity, He used Himself and the Father as the model. They are distinct persons, with distinct roles, united not by sameness but by shared heart, will, and love. If that is the pattern for our unity, then unity was never meant to mean uniformity.

This matters enormously for a church — or a family, or a friendship, or a nation — made up of different backgrounds, different convictions, different ways of worshipping and living. Canada’s national identity is often described as a mosaic rather than a melting pot. A melting pot asks everyone to dissolve into sameness. A mosaic keeps every piece distinct and lets the beauty come from how the pieces fit together. The mosaic doesn’t ask you to disappear. It invites you to belong.

This is what heaven looks like too! A vast crowd from every nation, tribe, people, and language, gathered before the same throne. Heaven doesn’t erase difference. It gathers it under one King. If that’s the picture of eternity, it should also be our picture of how to live together now.

Reflection

What is one difference in someone close to you that you could choose to see as a gift?

How does the image of a mosaic, rather than a melting pot, change how you think about belonging in your church or community?

Prayer

Father, You and the Son are one, — not identical, always united. Teach me to want that kind of unity rather than uniformity. Where I’ve expected people to become like me before I could feel close to them, forgive me. Let me see the beautiful mosaic You’re building in the kingdom; and let me be someone who helps it hold together. Amen.

Day 3: The Heart, Not the Head or Hands

General • •

“The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” — 1 Samuel 16:7 (NLT)

Devotion

There are different ways people try to hold unity together. One is right belief: shared theology, aligned doctrine. Another is right practice: shared rituals, the same way of worshipping, dressing, or doing church. Neither one on its own has proven strong enough to hold people together over time. Both matter. What holds is the heart.

This is the same lesson God gave Samuel when he was choosing a king. Samuel was looking at outward qualifications, such as stature and appearance, the obvious markers of leadership. God redirected him entirely: people judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. David wasn’t chosen because his theology was more correct or his practice more polished. He was chosen because of his heart.

There’s something instructive even in how a physical heart works. It receives before it gives. It cannot pump out what it hasn’t first taken in. It gives life to parts completely unlike itself — the brain, the lungs, the feet — all sustained by the same blood supply despite being entirely different. It works hardest under pressure rather than quitting. And it rests between every beat, not by grinding endlessly but by returning again and again. Get the heart right, and the head and the hands will follow. Get it wrong, and no amount of correct belief or proper practice will hold the rest together.

Reflection

Have you relied more on having the right beliefs or the right practices to hold relationships together, rather than tending to the heart underneath?

Where do you need to receive before you can give?

What would it look like to let your heart rest?

Prayer

Lord, You look at the heart, not the outward appearance; not even the correctness of my beliefs or habits. Examine mine today. Where I’ve been trying to hold things together with the head or the hands alone, redirect me to the heart. Teach me to receive before I give, and to rest between every beat. Make my heart the kind that can sustain real unity with the people around me. Amen.

Day 4: There Is Still Room

General • •

“Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame… There is still room for more.” — Luke 14:21–22 (NLT)

Devotion

In Jesus’ parable, the invited guests (who were clearly qualified) all made excuses. New land, new oxen, a new marriage. None of it was urgent. All of it was more important to them than the invitation. So the host sent his servant out to the streets and alleys, to the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame. Even after that, the house still wasn’t full. There is still room for more.

This is the picture of humility that holds genuine community together: belonging came before qualifying. The table didn’t fill with people who had earned their seat. It filled with people who simply showed up. And the host wanted it that way — he wanted a full house, regardless of who filled it.

A right heart knows this about itself. It remembers that it didn’t earn its own seat at the table and yet was let in. Because it remembers being welcomed, it cannot stand at the door it walked through and decide who else gets to enter. The moment you forget you were welcomed, you start guarding the door. Without humility, grace can’t be received or extended. A heart that only holds onto what it’s been given, without passing it on, eventually stops functioning the way God designed it.

Reflection

Have you ever caught yourself “guarding the door” — deciding, even subtly, who deserves to belong and who doesn’t?

Who is someone in your life right now who might need to hear “there is still room”? Someone who feels like they don’t qualify to belong?

Prayer

God, I didn’t earn my seat at Your table. I was let in by grace, plain and simple. Forgive me for the times I’ve forgotten that and started guarding the door instead. Today I want to extend the same welcome I received. Show me who needs to hear that there is still room and give me the humility to make space for them. Amen.

Day 5: Honour in Every Direction

General • •

“I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb.” — Revelation 7:9 (NLT)

Devotion

A right heart is secure enough in its own identity that it isn’t threatened by someone else’s. This security is what makes honour possible in every direction: upward toward those who lead, sideways toward peers, downward toward those you lead, and inward toward yourself. Overemphasize only one direction and something distorts. Honour all of them together, and something powerful holds.

This is what genuine reconciliation looks like in practice. After years of division between churches in a small town, change began not with theological debate but with simple meals like coffee, good food, and sitting across the table from people who had once been treated as outsiders or rivals. No agenda beyond honouring them as people. Over time, pastors who had looked down on each other started walking together. People who had bullied as children sat at the same table as adults and found each other again. Every disagreement disappeared because honour created room for relationship.

Revelation gives us the eternal picture: nations remain nations before the throne. Heaven doesn’t erase the differences between people. It gathers them, intact, under one King. Honour doesn’t require sameness. It requires security — enough confidence in who you are that someone else’s difference stops feeling like a threat and starts looking like a gift.

Reflection

Which direction of honour is hardest for you right now?

Is there a relationship in your life that has been strained by difference rather than honoured through it? What would one small step toward honour look like?

How does your own sense of security, or lack of it, affect how you feel by people who are different from you?

Prayer

Lord, let me be secure enough in who I am that someone else’s difference doesn’t feel like a threat. Teach me to honour in every direction. Where division has taken root because honour was missing, soften my heart first. Let me be someone who starts at the table with no agenda but love. Amen.

Day 6: Eating With the Ones You Disagree With

General • •

“Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people — even eating with them.” — Luke 15:1–2 (NLT)

Devotion

Jesus didn’t require people to agree with Him, change their behaviour, or qualify in any way before He would sit at a table with them. He ate with tax collectors and sinners while the religious establishment complained from a distance. He didn’t pretend the differences weren’t real. He simply refused to let the differences determine who got a seat.

This is honesty, the third quality of a right heart, and possibly the hardest to live out. Honouring someone doesn’t mean agreeing with everyone all the time. It means you can hold a genuine conviction without weaponizing it. So often, disagreement becomes distance. We turn our different perspectives, whether political, theological, or personal, into reasons to separate rather than reasons for honest conversation. We lose the table because we can’t stand the tension.

A heart that stays honest is a heart under load, refusing to quit. The physical heart works hardest under pressure. It doesn’t shut down when the body needs it most, it leans in. Staying in a hard conversation, remaining at the table with someone you genuinely disagree with, choosing not to walk away when it would be easier — that is honesty as rest, not as another fight. You don’t have to win the disagreement. You’re allowed to simply stay in the room.

Reflection

What would it look like to hold your convictions firmly while still choosing to stay at the table with someone who sees it differently?

Who is someone you’ve been avoiding because of disagreement, where God might be inviting you to simply stay in the room?

Prayer

Jesus, You ate with people the religious crowd refused to sit with. You didn’t agree with everything, but You refused to let disagreement determine the table. Teach me to hold my convictions without weaponizing them. Show me the relationship I’ve been avoiding because it felt too hard. I don’t have to win it. I’m just asked to stay. Give me the strength to remain in the room. Amen.

Day 7: Many Nations, One Family, One King

General • •

“Make us one as You are one… because we’re one in You, and because of that, we’re also extending our love to others.”

“I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one.” — John 17:21 (NLT)

Devotion

This is the picture we’ve been building toward all week: many nations, one family, one King. Not unity by erasure, but unity by gathering. Every distinct piece held together because of who they all kneel toward.

A humble heart knows it didn’t earn its seat, and so it cannot guard the door. An honouring heart is secure enough in itself to celebrate difference rather than fear it. An honest heart stays at the table even when it disagrees, refusing to let division win simply because agreement feels safer.

All three flow from the same source: a heart that has genuinely received grace and is no longer anxious about protecting its place.

This is what makes living together actually possible. It is not shared theology or practice alone, but a shared heart, centred on the same King. Extend the welcome you yourself received.

Reflection

Looking back over this week, where has God most challenged your understanding of humility, honour, or honesty?

Who is someone (person, group, or relationship) that this week has stirred you to reach toward differently?

Prayer

Lord, make us one as You are one. Humble enough to remember we didn’t earn our seat. Honouring enough to see difference as a gift, not a threat. Honest enough to stay at the table even when it’s hard. We’re one in You, and because of that, we extend that same love to everyone You bring across our path. Make us a people who reflect heaven now as many nations, one family, one King. Amen.