3 Day Bible Reading Plan - “Gift of Protection”
“Peter's life didn't get easier; indeed, it became demonstrably more difficult and dangerous. But he was granted the supernatural power to endure opposition, to stand firm in the face of persecution, and to proclaim the truth with courage. The path before Peter, and before all who would genuinely follow Jesus, is not an easy one. We will face the opposition of a dark global power that seeks to tempt us, deceive us, and destroy us. The battle will leave many scars, many wounds, many moments of doubt and struggle. But by trusting in Christ, by leaning on the Father's promise to keep us, we can endure this fight with joy until the very end. We can know, with Peter, that even though it’s not easy, we are going to make it.” - Pastor Paul Crandell, 12/7/25
Day 1
Featured Verse: John 17:11–16 - “Holy Father, keep them in Your name.”
Jesus asks the Father to “protect them from the evil one” (v. 15) rather than to remove them from the world. Why do you think protection, not removal, is the focus of this prayer, and what does that suggest about how we’re meant to live as followers of Jesus in a hostile or tempting environment?
Jesus repeats the phrase “not of the world” several times (vv. 14, 16). What does it actually mean to you personally to be “in the world but not of it”? Where do you feel that tension most in your daily life?
Jesus says He protected and kept the disciples while He was with them, and “none of them has been lost except the son of perdition” (v. 12). How does the fact that Jesus perfectly guards those the Father has given Him (even when we feel vulnerable or afraid) affect the way you think about your own security in Christ?
Pause and Reflect: Jesus is praying right now for you, personally, asking the Father to protect you by His name, to guard you from the evil one. What fear, temptation, or situation in your life right now feels too big for you to handle on your own?
“‘They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.’ That is the law of Christian life. We are in the world, but not of it; like water lilies that have their roots in the mud and their flowers in the sunlight, or like icebergs that rise aloft into another atmosphere, though they be mainly submerged in the dense cold sea.” - Alexander Maclaren
Day 2
Featured Verse: John 13:25–27 - “After he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him.”
The text says, “As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him” (v. 27). How does this moment show the terrifying reality that a person can be physically close to Jesus, share meals with Him, and even be chosen as an apostle, yet still have a heart that remains open to Satan’s control?
The disciples at the table still don’t understand what’s happening, they think Judas is leaving to buy supplies or give money to the poor (v. 29). What does this misunderstanding teach us about how spiritual darkness can operate right in front of us, even in the closest Christian community, without being immediately obvious?
In the span of just a few verses, Judas moves from reclining at the table in the intimate presence of Jesus to walking straight out into the darkness the moment Satan enters him. What does this dramatic shift reveal about how quickly a heart can turn when someone repeatedly resists the light and love of Christ?
Pause and Reflect: How can you actively guard your heart so that, unlike Judas, you never reach the point where Satan finds an open door after years of walking so close to Jesus?
“Do you see the awful solemnity of this? Here is a man who has been with Christ for three years, who has sat at His feet, who has eaten bread with Him night after night, who has seen the miracles, who has heard the matchless teaching—and now, after the sop, Satan entered into him. My friend, do not play with these things. You can be a member of a church, you can sit at the Lord’s Table Sunday by Sunday, you can take the bread and the wine with the greatest reverence outwardly, and at that very moment Satan can be entering into you if your heart is not right with God. Judas took the sop from the very hand of incarnate Love, and at that moment Satan took possession of him. Oh, the treachery of the human heart! Never trust it. Never rely upon religious privilege or ecclesiastical position. It is the heart God looks at, and unless the heart is right, everything else is vanity.” - D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Day 3
Featured Verse: Acts 4:19–20 - “For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
In John 17 Jesus asked the Father to sanctify you in the truth so you could be sent into the world just as He was; when Peter and John say “We cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard,” how do you see yourself as an answer to that very prayer, protected, sanctified, and sent?
Judas took bread from Jesus’ hand and immediately Satan entered him; Peter and John stood before the Sanhedrin and declared they could not stop speaking. When you are tempted to keep quiet about Jesus to protect yourself, which table do you want to be sitting at, the one where you take His bread and then walk into the night, or the one where His protection and power make silence impossible?
The same risen Lord who prayed “keep them from the evil one” is the One Peter and John cannot stop talking about. In your own life right now, where do you need to lean harder into His promised protection so that fear of consequences never silences your testimony?
Pause and Reflect: You have eaten at Christ’s table, felt His love, and heard His prayer over you; when fear whispers that obedience will cost too much, what keeps you from hardening your heart the way Judas did the instant he took the bread and walked into the night?
“They answer with a holy and magnanimous boldness, ‘Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.’ They put it upon their own consciences, and appeal to the tribunal of God in their breasts. And then they add that which is the great reason of all faithful witnesses in all ages: ‘For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.’ It was not opinion, nor hearsay, nor tradition, but ocular demonstration and experimental knowledge of Christ risen and ascended; and the Holy Ghost had so filled their hearts with the love and glory of Christ, and the sense of the worth of souls, that they could not hold, no more than a man full of new wine can choose but speak. It was a necessity laid upon them by the Spirit of Christ; and therefore they must obey God rather than men, yea, though it were to go to prison or death for it. And this is the true spirit of all that are sent of Christ: they cannot but speak, because they cannot but love; and they cannot but love, because Christ hath first loved them, and manifested Himself unto them as He doth not unto the world.” - Thomas Goodwin