Sometime we may think as believers once we are saved why can’t we be taken away from the challenges of life to be with the Lord Jesus. In John 17 we read of the Lord desires for believers not to be taken out of the world but he prays they may be kept from evil. The Lord has us in mind for a greater purpose to be used for testimony and blessing.
Bible Scriptures: Darby Translation
John 17:9-22 “9 I demand concerning them; I do not demand concerning the world, but concerning those whom thou hast given me, for they are thine,10 (and all that is mine is thine, and [all] that is thine mine,) and I am glorified in them.11 And I am no longer in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one as we.12 When I was with them I kept them in thy name; those thou hast given me I have guarded, and not one of them has perished, but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled.
13 And now I come to thee. And these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in them.14 I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world.15 I do not demand that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them out of evil.16 They are not of the world, as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them by the truth: thy word is truth.18 As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world;19 and I sanctify myself for them, that they also may be sanctified by truth.20 And I do not demand for these only, but also for those who believe on me through their word;21 that they may be all one, as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”
Luke 22:31-32 “31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you, to sift [you] as wheat;32 but *I* have besought for thee that thy faith fail not; and *thou*, when once thou hast been restored, confirm thy brethren.”