Devoted

Devotion is a word we hear often. We hear it in love songs and in references to early morning times with the Lord. To be devoted is to be loyal and dedicated to some cause or to a person.

Stories of devotion abound in our world. In The Return of the King, Samwise Gamgee sees the utter exhaustion of his friend, Frodo. They are at the foot of Mount Doom—so close to the end. Sam does not simply take the ring and finish the journey himself; he lifts his ring-bearing friend onto his shoulders and carries him up the mountain. He is devoted to the end.

Films like Saving Private Ryan and Braveheart likewise portray devotion to a cause, where one is willing to risk his own life for the freedom of another. Devotion inspires heroic acts of courage in the face of looming threat.

We love stories like these because we know how difficult devotion really is.

We know our own failures. We have shrunk back in the face of temptation. We have chosen the easier path when we thought no one was watching. We have not loved our spouses as we ought. We have not always made the discipleship of our children a priority, but have instead chosen selfishness or laziness. We have not been devoted to the gospel—to sharing it or living it. We have given in way more than once.

In 2 Timothy 1:7–8, Paul instructs Timothy to “share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.” He calls him to be devoted to the gospel he proclaims, just as Paul himself has been. Yet Paul also warns Timothy of two great threats to such devotion:

“God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord…”

Fear and shame remain two of the greatest threats to a life of devotion.

Fear often exposes how fragile our loyalty can be. We may sincerely love God and others, yet retreat when comfort, security, reputation, or ease feels threatened. What happens to our devotion when obedience may cost us opportunities, rest, money, or approval? What fears keep us from remaining steadfast in the uncomfortable?

Then there is shame.

I have seen people allow past failures to dictate their present devotion to the Lord. Shame whispers crippling lies: God does not delight in you. You are too broken. Too stained. Too far gone to be useful to him. Shame drains endurance. It urges us to flee the very furnace where God is refining us. Yet it is often through patience, perseverance, and prolonged discomfort that God graciously conforms us to the image of his Son.

Shame tells us to leave. Devotion calls us to remain.

We are called to a life of devotion, but ultimately we do not look to our own resilience.

There is no greater devotion than Christ’s devotion to his Father. Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” (John 4:34). In Gethsemane he prayed, “Not my will, but yours, be done.” John Owen wrote, “The Lord Christ… delighted to do the will of God, and therein placed the joy and satisfaction of his soul.”

This devotion led Jesus to the cross.

It required endurance, single-mindedness, patience, longsuffering, loyalty, and unwavering obedience to “abolish death and bring life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10). Nothing less than perfect devotion would do. Any deviation, any surrender to fear, any recoil from the Father’s will, would have left death the victor.

We need to hear this often:

When Satan tempted him, Jesus remained devoted.
When he was exhausted, Jesus remained devoted.
When the disciples were dull and slow to understand, Jesus remained devoted.
When the physical, emotional, and spiritual anguish was more than any of us could bear, Jesus remained devoted.

He abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

So when we call our fear fear, our shame shame, and our weakness sin, we do so under this glorious proclamation: where I have failed, Jesus has endured.

And hear this wonderful truth: Jesus is devoted to you.

Many of us need to hear that often. He is committed to you as his friend, as his bride, as a child of God.

Ephesians 5:25–27 speaks of this devotion of the Son:

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

Jesus is devoted to his bride in love—to sanctify her, cleanse her, and present her to himself in splendor.

And if the One who looked death in the face and remained devoted to his Father is this devoted to you, then of all people we have reason to be comforted and encouraged.

Frodo had the devotion of Sam.

We have the devotion of Jesus.